Five suspects take plea deals, sentenced to years in prison in 2021 execution-style killing of Bend man in Gresham

GRESHAM, Ore. (KTVZ) – Plea deals have led to prison sentences of 7 ½ to 20 years for four men and a woman accused of the execution-style killing of a Bend man in Gresham in 2021, Gresham Police announced Friday.

Here's the police department's announcement of resolution of the cases:

On the evening of September 24^th, 2021, Gresham Police patrol officers were dispatched to a report of a deceased person near NE 189^th Ave and NE Portal Way. The victim was found with no shoes, no wallet, no phone, no identification, and broken zip-ties laying near his arms and hands. His positioning and injuries indicated he was executed by a single gunshot while kneeling on the curb. The victim was later identified as 34-year-old Andrew Sherrell of Bend. 

The East County Major Crimes Team was activated and led the investigation.  The investigation bifurcated into two groups, with a small contingent of MCT detectives responding to Central Oregon, where they partnered with detectives from the Bend Police Department, Redmond Police Department and Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office.

Other MCT members continued to investigate the case locally. Our Central Oregon agency partners were an invaluable resource throughout this investigation.

Through a labor-intensive, months-long investigation, detectives learned the victim was a low-level drug dealer who failed to pay for narcotics fronted to him by his dealer, Cesar Estrada Nava. Estrada Nava was also feeling the pressure from a substantial drug debt to his own dealer.

Estrada Nava enlisted the assistance of Kassandra Kitchens, D’Sean Baker, CJ Wobbe, and Andrew Bushnell, in a plot that led to the execution of Andrew Sherrell.

Sherrell and a friend drove from the Central Oregon area to the Portland Lloyd District on the day of his murder, not knowing a plot to kill him had been set in motion. Kitchens, a romantic interest of Sherrell’s, lured Sherrell to a parking lot with an offer of discount fentanyl. Once Sherrell was inside Kitchen’s SUV, she drove him a block down the street to the waiting arms of Estrada Nava, Baker, Wobbe, and Bushnell. 

Andrew Sherrell was assaulted by Andrew Bushnell and D’Sean Baker before being forced into the back of an SUV where Estrada Nava was waiting. Kitchens drove Estrada Nava and Sherrell to a second location in the Lloyd District while Sherrell’s hands, arms, legs, and feet were being zip-tied together. 

The wheelman, CJ Wobbe, and enforcers D’Sean Baker and Andrew Bushnell met the SUV and exchanged positions. Wobbe drove the SUV while Estrada Nava and Baker assaulted and pistol-whipped the defenseless, zip-tied Sherrell in the back seat.

Bushnell was assigned to follow the SUV to its final location, but he was unable to keep up, ultimately getting lost in the Lloyd District and failing to participate in the final moments of Sherrell’s life. With her work finished, Kitchens returned to Estrada Nava’s home to await the other conspirators. 

At Estrada Nava’s direction, Wobbe drove to the industrial area of NE 189^th Ave and NE Portal Way. Sherrell was ripped from the vehicle, placed on his knees by Estrada Nava and Baker, and executed on the dark sidewalk.

In the early morning hours of December 13^th, 2021, multiple search and arrest warrants were simultaneously executed by four SWAT teams, multiple local and federal drug task force members, and MCT investigators.

Four of the five suspects were arrested and charged with murder, while investigators and the Gresham Police Department evidence division searched several locations. The fifth suspect was located and arrested by the Portland Police Bureau after a vehicle pursuit in early 2022.

After years of hearings, motions, meetings, interviews, debriefs, and thousands of pages of discovery, Multnomah County Senior Deputy District Attorney Kelley Rhoades resolved the case with each of the defendants.  This month, the final plea agreements were reached in this case.  The participants received the following sentences:

Cesar Estrada Nava – 20 years

D’Sean Baker – 20 years

Kassandra Kitchens – 115 months 

Andrew Bushnell – 100 months

CJ Wobbe – 90 months 

The Gresham Police Department would like to thank each of the following agencies and units for their assistance with this investigation.  Without each of the involved agencies, units and individuals, this case would not have been successfully concluded:

• Bend Police Department
• Redmond Police Department
• Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office
• Portland Police Bureau 
  • Patrol Division
  • Homicide Detectives
  • SERT
• FBI Drug Task Force
• FBI SWAT
• NW Regional Computer Forensic Laboratory
• Southwest Washington SWAT
• East Metro SWAT
• East County Major Crimes Team
• Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office – Senior DDA K. Rhoades