Notorious Local Murder Case Back In The Headlines

The former Redmondman convicted of brutally slaying a Terrebonne couple 22 years ago returned to a very familiar place – a Bend courtroom – on Thursday.

Randy Lee Guzek was convicted of murdering Rod and Lois Houser during a robbery at their Terrebonne homein 1987.

Since then,one of the many appeals filed in his case has even reached the U.S. Supreme Court.Guzek has been given the death penalty three times, all of which have been overturned on procedural grounds.

In Deschutes County CircuitCourt Thursday, a trial date was set – again -for Guzek’s fourth death penalty trial.Originally scheduled for this June, now it is slated for May 2010 – and between now and then, lawyers on both sides have a lot of work to do.

“The crime itself was a burglary that ended up with two people being dead,” said sheriff’s Capt.Marc Mills, who was a detective back in 1987 when it happened. “It was one of those kinds of crimes that you can’t really say anything – what word describes it? It was horrific. It was horrendous.”

Guzek was just 18 when he brutally stabbed and shot the Housers.Now 40 years old, he’s lived more than half his life in prison, and was brought over from Salem with several guardsto be in a Bend courtroom once again.

Defense lawyers wanted Guzek’s fourth death penalty trial pushed back from February 2010 to June, citing work on other cases, and the snowy winter weather.But the state disagreed.

Former Deschutes County prosecutor and now Clatsop County DA Josh Marquis told the court, ‘My witnesses are literally dying, and moving away.'”

Visiting Lane County Judge Jack Billings decided on a compromise: May 10, 2010.

“It’s been one of those cases that’s continued and continued and continued,”Mills said.

At the time of the crime, the sheriff’s office worked extensively on the investigation, and collaborated with several other agencies.

“We were completely exhausted – all our resources here at the sheriff’s office,” Mills said. “We brought in detectives from State Police, Bend Police, Redmond.We reached out to everybody that we could.”

The murders were proved to be horrific, premeditated and violent. Two other defendants in the case were sentenced to life in prison, but Guzek, the mastermind behind it, was given the death penalty. Over the last 22 years, he’s gotten it three times, but is still very much alive.

One of the people watching Thursday’s hearing unfold was one of the Housers’ daughters, who discovered the gruesome scene in 1987, and is still forced to relive it.

“For a family to go through something like this for as many years as they have, how can you describe that? It’s been the ultimate challenge,”Mills said. “For the family and the grieving process, they’ve certainly processed through it, but it still resurfaces each and every time thishas to come back to the county.”

To date, just Guzek’s legal fees alone have cost taxpayers roughly $2.2 million, and that does not include the cost of simply having him in prison for more than two decades.

He’s now Oregon’s most expensive state prisoner, and that cost continues to rise, as this death penalty case goes to trial for a fourth time on May 10, 2010 – barring any more delays.