Appeals court upholds suspect’s plea in 2014 Kennewick murder case

Twenty months after allegedly killing his estranged wife’s boyfriend inside the lobby of a Kennewick business, Matthew H. de Vore is getting another chance to plead guilty.

De Vore’s case has been on hold since January 2015, while the defense appealed a Benton County Superior Court judge’s decision to withdraw a plea of second-degree murder.

The decision had allowed prosecutors to move forward with an enhanced charge of first-degree murder.

On Tuesday, the state Court of Appeals ruled that Judge Cameron Mitchell violated de Vore’s right to plead guilty and erred when he took back the second-degree murder plea.

In reversing Mitchell, the appellate court ordered that de Vore be allowed to plead guilty to the original charge.

De Vore, 41, is accused of stabbing Thomas R. Christian Sr. in the chest with an 8-inch kitchen knife on Nov. 24, 2014.

Attorney Scott Johnson said Tuesday he was not surprised by the three-judge appeals panel’s decision.

“It’s certainly frustrating that we had to let it drag on this long to let Matthew accept responsibility, which we wanted to do from our first day in court,” Johnson said.

It could be about a month before de Vore returns to court, depending on how long it takes for paperwork to come back from the Court of Appeals.

Johnson said his client still is “intending to do what (he) wanted to do from Day 1.”

Benton County Prosecutor Andy Miller and Deputy Prosecutor Emily Sullivan can ask the Court of Appeals to reconsider if they believe the judges overlooked or misinterpreted particular points of law or facts.

The prosecutors also can file a petition for review to the state Supreme Court.

Sullivan said that likely is not the plan, but their main focus on Tuesday was notifying the families of the appellate opinion before they heard about it through media reports.

“Obviously (the victim’s family is) upset that de Vore never really took responsibility, and that they’re not going to be able to have a trial,” Sullivan said. “There is not much legal significance in terms of the (court’s) opinion because he did plead to (second-degree) murder with the aggravator.”

Both the original murder charge against de Vore and the amended charge that bumped it up to first-degree included the aggravating circumstance that Christian’s death had a destructive and foreseeable impact on others.

If de Vore admits the aggravating circumstance, prosecutors can ask for more time above the standard sentencing range for the crime.

The victim, Christian, 45, was sitting in the lobby of Kennewick’s Biomat USA, and prosecutors say de Vore went into the business after him.

Christian died in front of more than a dozen people.

The grandfather had recently moved to the Tri-Cities to reconnect with de Vore’s estranged wife. Christian and Brenda de Vore dated in high school and talked about moving to Tennessee together.

Brenda and Matthew de Vore at the time were divorcing after an 18-year marriage. The divorce was finalized in March 2015.

At his first court hearing, Matthew de Vore tried to plead guilty to second-degree murder.

After Johnson handed the judge his client’s plea statement, Miller announced that he was amending the charge to premeditated first-degree murder.

At a follow-up hearing, Mitchell denied Miller’s request to change the charge and gave de Vore the opportunity to plead guilty to second-degree murder.

After talking it over with de Vore, the judge determined the plea “was knowing, intelligent and voluntary” and that the defendant gave an adequate factual basis to support it.

Miller had argued the plea was invalid because de Vore’s statement did not meet all of the elements of second-degree murder, particularly that he denied he intended to kill Christian.

Mitchell acknowledged that he “had some concern whether the entry of Mr. de Vore’s plea served the interests of justice,” the opinion said.

A week later, he reversed his earlier ruling and took back the guilty plea.

The Court of Appeals noted that de Vore’s statement did support the elements because he told the judge he snapped, drew his knife and stabbed Christian.

De Vore also said, “I attempted to kill him.”

“Although his statement may not have established guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, there is sufficient evidence for a jury to conclude he was guilty,” the appellate court said. “An adequate factual basis supported his plea.”

Mitchell had no discretion to reject the guilty plea in December 2014, the appeals court concluded.

De Vore has been in the Benton County jail since his arrest. His bail is $250,000.

This story was originally published July 19, 2016 at 7:43 PM with the headline "Appeals court upholds suspect’s plea in 2014 Kennewick murder case."