September 25, 2009

Paulk pleads guilty
Killer will receive life sentence with parole possible in 25 years

By Rodger Nichols
The Chronicle

     James Paulk Jr., 31, has pled guilty to the murder of a Portland area man, Christopher Bailey, near Mosier on June 30, 2007.
     Paulk will receive a life sentence, with the possibility of parole after 25 years. He is currently serving a sentence from Washington State which extends the parole eligibility time to 31 years.
     According to a memo released Friday by Wasco County District Attorney Eric Nisley, Paulk and the victim were both members of the European Kindred prison gang and had known each other for some time.
     The memo said the victim’s girlfriend, Krystal Sapien, testified at bail hearing in February that on June 28, 2007, Paulk picked up Bailey and Sapien and drove with them to Hood River. The group drank and played pool at a bar in Hood River for a while then drove back toward The Dalles. The defendant was driving, Sapien was in the front passenger seat and Bailey was seated behind her. Near the Mosier exit, the defendant pulled out a small hand gun and shot Bailey two or three times.
     Paulk then drove Sapien and the dead body to a residence near The Dalles where they took methamphetamine. Paulk and Sapien also went to Paulk’s father’s house where he asked his father for a shovel and in sum told his father there was a body in the car. The father refused, and Sapien testified that Paulk then drove around for about seven to 10 days with the body in the car.
     The defendant then met with Christie Borton and ended up dropping the body over a cliff into a ravine off Highway 14 in Washington state. Borton testified that Paulk threw a pair of gloves at her and told her to help. They then threw the body down the ravine and left.
     Paulk then stole a car, robbed the owner, Trace Phillips, and shot him with a handgun.
     Paulk was convicted in Washington by plea of robbery in the first degree, assault in the second degree with a deadly weapon, unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon and malicious mischief in the first degree.
     In October 2008, Paulk was indicted by a Wasco County grand jury for the Bailey murder.
     District Attorney Nisley said the plea agreement makes sense in the situation, and the original charge was not a death penalty offense.
     “This will keep all of society much safer,” he said.