Judge sets $500,000 bail for Ian Cranston after appeals court overturns manslaughter conviction
BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- After hearing arguments by both sides and a tearful plea from the victim’s mother, a Deschutes County judge set bail at $500,000 Monday for a Redmond man whose manslaughter conviction was recently overturned by the Oregon Court of Appeals.
Circuit Judge Beth Bagley, who sentenced Ian Cranston to 10 years in prison in the September 2021 shooting death of Barry Washington Jr., sided with prosecutors on the bail amount, saying it was “the least onerous amount of security” that she felt was appropriate, considering the nature of the crime, a fatal shooting on a busy downtown Bend street.
If he is released from jail, the judge ordered Cranston, now 31, to not possess any firearms or ammunition, use, possess or consume any alcohol, or go anywhere alcohol is the main item for sale. She also ordered him to stay away from the downtown Bend bar The Capitol, outside of which the shooting occurred.
A jury acquitted Cranston on a second-degree murder charge but found him guilty of first- and second-degree manslaughter for shooting Washington, an act he claimed was in self-defense, after being punched by Washington, who was 22 at the time of his death.
Last fall, the state appeals court reversed and remanded Cranston’s manslaughter conviction due to a special instruction related to self-defense that the defense had sought but was not given to the jury.
He recently was returned to the Deschutes County Jail after serving part of his sentence at the Snake River Correctional Institution in Ontario.
Defense attorney Kevin Sali cited Cranston’s ties to the community and said he should not be considered a flight risk. He asked that Cranston be released without posting bail, but that if the judge disagreed that the amount be no more than $150,000, not the "excessive" amount sought by prosecutors.
Deputy District Attorney Brooks McClain requested the higher bail amount, noting that Cranston is still charged with manslaughter for firing a gun in "downtown Bend, in a fairly busy night, on a public street."
Washington’s mother, LaWanda Roberson, also appeared by video Monday, speaking tearfully, as she had at trial and other occasions, about how her life was “forever changed by a tragedy that no mother should ever have to endure.”
“I was angry with God and questioned him,” she said. “I did not want to be on this Earth without my son.”
Roberson also addressed Cranston directly, saying at one point: “You didn’t just take my son’s life. You took mine, too.”
“I will never forgive you, and I know I will have to answer to God for that.”
Bagley said she will set a future status hearing to schedule the retrial, depending on whether Cranston is able to post bail.
