Widow outraged by ‘error’ that gives murderer of Tri-Cities coach 2nd try at release

Because of a clerical error, a man found guilty of murdering a Benton City teacher and favorite coach will get another chance to convince a Washington state board to release him early from prison.

In September 2004, Robert Suarez, then 16, and a younger teen were stranded in Benton City without a ride back to Kennewick when they saw Coach Bob Mars pull into a Kiona-Benton school parking lot to drop off a game tape from earlier that evening.

Mars offered to let them use the landline phone in his middle school portable classroom.

The younger teen, Jordan Castillo, then 14, stabbed him in the back as he left the portable classroom and then the teens took his pickup, his cell and about $300 from a fundraising event.

Kris Mars, who was married to Mars, posted on Facebook this weekend that a liaison with the Washington state Indeterminate Sentence Review Board recently called her to say the board made a “clerical error” prior to an August 2025 hearing on whether Robert Suarez could be released early.

In that hearing the board denied Suarez’s request, determining on a 3-2 vote that Suarez was more likely than not to commit a new crime if let out of prison at this time.

Kris Mars said she was told that the state erred in not verifying that Suarez had received all documents he was legally entitled to before the August hearing.

In a letter from the board she was told that Suarez’s attorney found that Suarez had not received some important material that the board considered in its decision.

As a result, a new hearing is set for April 15.

Kris Mars asks for Tri-Cities’ help

“I am not here to whine about this, but I’m pleading with you to take action,” she said, appealing to those who knew and loved him, were taught by him or were coached by him and those who care about justice.

She asked people to consider writing the board to let them know that the community is outraged by the board’s lack of efficiency.

She provided a sample letter with her Facebook post at facebook.com/kris.rudolph.1, urging that the board review how the error occurred, but to stand by its 2025 decision denying Suarez’s early release.

“An oversight of this magnitude — particularly in a case involving the 2004 murder of Bob Mars — raises serious concerns about administrative diligence and the integrity of the proceedings,” she said in her sample letter.

But the findings from the board’s decision reflected careful review and maintaining that decision would reinforce the importance of accountability and consistency in the board’s process, she said in her sample letter.

Kris Mars rallied support on social media before the board’s first hearing on releasing Suarez early, convinced Tri-Cities area residents to write letters, email and attend a hearing in Lacey, Wash.

When she believed Suarez did not tell the truth about the crime in that hearing, she contacted retired Benton County Prosecutor Andy Miller and Lee Cantu, a detective who investigated the murder. They joined Kris Mars in writing letters to the board to provide information about the attack.

Kris Mars said after the first hearing that Suarez intended to return to the Tri-Cities. That would traumatize the Mars’ family and would represent a failure of justice and public safety, she wrote in a letter to the state board.

She also was concerned that Suarez’s gang affiliation was not being given enough consideration by the board. She maintains he is still violent and is in contact with gang members in the Tri-Cities, Spokane and Walla Walla.

Suarez sentenced to 27 years

Suarez was tried as an adult in the case and was convicted March 11, 2005, of first-degree murder by a Benton County jury and was given the maximum sentence of nearly 27 years in prison.

Castillo was sentenced to nearly 30 years in prison after a jury found he was the person who stabbed the coach.

The Indeterminate Sentence Review Board had jurisdiction over cases in which crimes were committed by people not yet 18 but were sentenced as adults.

Earlier Kris Mars posted that she also expects Castillo to request early release.

Bob Mars was found the morning after he was stabbed, lying in the hall of the school’s main building, where it’s believed he collapsed while trying to reach a phone in the teachers lounge.

He was a sixth-grade teach at Ki-Be, an assistant football coach at Ki-Be High School and a wrestling coach at Kennewick High.

He lived in Richland with his wife and sons Kyler and Kody, while older son Bobby was stationed at Camp Pendleton, Calif. Bob Mars was 44 when he was killed.

Letters to the Indeterminate Sentence Review Board may be emailed to isrb@DOC1.wa.gov or mailed to P.O. Box 40907; Olympia, WA 98504.

This story was originally published March 9, 2026 at 4:45 AM.