Madras stabbing victim recovering; 2 men held

(Update: Condition update, adding mugshots)

A Madras man was found on a street with several stab wounds late Saturday afternoon and two Warm Springs men were arrested 90 minutes later on attempted murder and other charges after they were spotted trying to break into a pickup truck, police said.

It took the use of Tasers to take them into custody, they added.

Police responded around 4:30 p.m. to the reported assault near Southeast 11 th and C streets, Madras police Detective Sergeant Steve Webb said.

The 46-year-old Madras man, who police have not identified, was taken first to St. Charles Madras with several stab wounds to the upper body. He later was flown to Oregon Health and Sciences University in Portland, where Webb said he had improved from critical to serious condition Sunday morning.

Webb said the victim was able to speak with officers, who were able to identify one suspect in the assault as Devonne Rhoan, 27, and got a description of a second suspect.

Shortly after 6 p.m., Frontier Regional Dispatch (911) got a call reporting two men trying to break into a locked pickup truck just west of the Texaco gas station at Fourth and D streets, about a half-mile west of where the assault victim was found, Webb said.

When officers arrived, the two suspects, Rhoan and 44-year-old Gabriel George, refused to comply with their commands and Tasers were deployed to take the two men into custody, the sergeant said.

Investigators determined the two men acted together in the assault and they were taken to the Jefferson County Jail. Rhoan was held without bail on an outstanding warrant for probation violation, Webb added.

Both men face initial charges of attempted murder, first-degree assault, unlawful use of a weapon and menacing. They also face charges in the pickup break-in attempt of first-degree criminal mischief, attempted unlawful entry into and use of a motor vehicle, resisting arrest and interfering with a police officer.

Webb told NewsChannel 21 police are still investigating what led up to the assault. He said police also are investigating whether Saturday’s assault is related to one previously reported last Sunday.

In that incident, a 21-year-old Madras man was stabbed several times early last Sunday in downtown Madras. A police officer found him lying in the parking lot of the Madras Pub and Deli on Southwest Fifth Street, near C Street, They determined the assault occurred a short distance away. The man was reported in good condition at St. Charles Bend later that day.

Anyone with information was asked to contact Madras police through Frontier dispatchers at 541-475-2201.

Online court records show Rhoan pleaded no contest in April 2013 to second-degree assault and received a prison sentence of nearly six years, followed by three years post-prison supervision. Previously, he was convicted of third-degree theft in 2011 and received a 120-hour jail term.

George was convicted earlier this year of second-degree criminal trespass and given a five-day jail sentence. He pleaded no contest in 2015 to second-degree burglary and was sentenced to 18 months in prison, the court records show.