Bend judge tosses Lara confession in Kaylee Sawyer killing

A Deschutes County judge ruled Friday that Edwin Lara’s apparent confession to the killing of Kaylee Sawyer can’t be used as evidence at his murder trial in a year because he indicated he wanted to speak to a lawyer first, but was not allowed to.

However, Circuit Judge Michael Adler rejected defense attorneys’ request to also strike some evidence regarding the state of Sawyer’s body, found on July 26 of last year. He ruled that detectives would have found it out in the open off a highway west of Redmond, even without Lara’s statements to police.

Adler made his rulings after a dozen days of testimony on defense motions that concluded in early September regarding Lara, a former COCC campus security guard charged in the July 2016 abduction and killing of Sawyer in the B-12 parking lot on COCC campus.

Adler noted the six-hour police interview at the Tehama County, Calif., jail included a statement by Lara, “I want to help you find the body, but I want to get home first.” That, he said, was Lara indicating he was not ready to talk to detectives until he was back in Oregon.

Adler said it wasn’t clear if Lara agreed to talk to detectives after police read his Miranda rights.

The judge also said Tehama County Jail officials violated the California penal code, which requires that new arrivals at the jail must be given an opportunity to make up to three calls within three hours of booking. But Adler noted Lara was there for five hours in a holding cell and was not allowed to make any phone calls, and had said to detectives, “Where’s my lawyer?”

Lara is charged with four counts of aggravated murder, and District Attorney John Hummel has indicated his office will seek the death penalty in the case.