Convicted killer headed back to prison after halfway house escape, Richland robbery

A 34-year-old man was still serving a 10-year sentence for manslaughter when he slipped away from transitional housing. Now he’s going back to prison for much longer.

Two months after his December 2024 escape, he helped beat, burn and rob a man in a Richland home.

But Stephen Morfin, who has spent most of his adulthood behind bars, avoided a life sentence when he pleaded guilty to first-degree robbery in Benton County Superior Court on Wednesday.

Prosecutors initially believed Morfin’s previous convictions for second-degree manslaughter and second-degree assault would have counted as “strikes” under the state’s persistent offender law.

The law requires a life sentence for anyone found guilty of a list of three violent offenses. While second-degree assault would normally be a strike, Morfin’s conviction was for being part of conspiracy to participate in the attack, which is not included in the list of strikes, the attorneys said.

He still faced between nine and 12 years in prison with his plea. He agreed to the maximum possible sentence after prosecutors agreed not to file escape charges and federal prosecutors declined to file gun-related charges.

But Deputy Prosecutor Julie Long asked for an extra year in prison after Morfin mouthed something to the audience at a hearing last week.

Long claimed Morfin told the victim he was “going to get him.” She pointed out the victim didn’t even know Morfin before the attack.

The action showed an egregious lack of remorse, Long said.

However, Morfin denied threatening the victim, saying he was trying to tell his wife, who was also in the audience, that he loved her.

“He has no personal issue with this guy,” his defense attorney Michael Vander Sys said. “It’s an unproven claim. I think this is a misunderstanding.”

Vander Sys also said the prosecutors couldn’t add an aggravating factor unless the defense agreed to it, or a jury found it.

Judge Diana Ruff said the law didn’t allow her to sentence Morfin outside of the range, and it would likely require him to have a new sentence if it was appealed.

“What happened to the victim was devastating,” Ruff said. “I’m going to impose the top of the range.”

Morfin will serve the rest of his previous sentence out alongside the new 12-year sentence.

Morfin’s two co-defendants, Jose A. Bonilla, 36, and Jennifer L. McCool, 49, remain charged with first-degree robbery. McCool faces an additional count of theft of a motor vehicle.

Bonilla is being held in the Benton County jail in lieu of $200,000 bail and McCool has been released on $100,000 bond.

Richland Robbery

Police were called to a Holly Street home on Feb. 21 after McCool, the man’s roommate, allegedly lured him out of bed by saying the power was out and the breaker box needed to be reset.

After finding some of the breakers turned off, he went back to tell his roommate, and instead found Bonilla, Morfin and a woman, court documents said.

When he walked in, the two men stood up and began punching him in the face. They demanded money, that he believed was related to property taxes owed on the residence. He tried telling the men that he didn’t owe any money, but they continued attacking him.

As they were attacking him, Morfin allegedly pulled out a handgun, and pointed it at the man, then pistol-whipped him “a number of times.”

The man tried to escape the attack, but Morfin and Bonilla followed him and continued to hit him. McCool allegedly also slapped him.

They allegedly rotated people watching him as they loaded the man’s tools into his truck. Bonilla held him at gun point at one point and they also all whipped him with dog leashes. Bonilla also allegedly threatened him with a butane torch and a butter knife while Morfin pointed the gun at him.

Prosecutors say they burned the man in order to get him to tell them where the money was.

They also forced him to unlock his phone, which he did. They allegedly used it to send $200 to McCool using Venmo.

After an hour and a half, the four people left. McCool allegedly drove his truck away, which has not been found.

Manslaughter

Morfin pleaded guilty in 2019 after killing a man over a drug debt, according to court records.

Martin Ibanez owed about $3,000 to his drug supplier and Morfin was enlisted to collect the money. He was taken to 1507 W. Seventh Place on Sept. 11, 2017.

While Morfin didn’t intent to kill Ibanez, after a brief argument in the driveway, he shot the man several times then took off.

Ibanez was pronounced dead at Trios Southridge Hospital in Kennewick.

At Morfin’s sentencing, Ibanez’s loved ones said they would forgive him, but it didn’t seem like he would change based on his history.

The deal to decrease the charge came after a trial came to screeching halt in 2018, a year after charges had been filed, when a witness said he met Morfin after he left jail or prison.

The judge had previously ruled Morfin’s prior convictions couldn’t be used in the trial. So the judge granted a mistrial.

He had been released to partial confinement in December, but escaped, according to the Washington Department of Corrections. His original sentence runs concurrently with the new one through Oct. 31.