Guilty plea came after trial looked inevitable

Weaver admitted to killing girls as judge refused to change venue

By Jim Redden

The Portland Tribune, Sep 24, 2004, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Ward Weaver didn’t offer to plead guilty to murdering Ashley Pond and Miranda Gaddis until after the judge in the case refused to move his trial to a different county.

In a surprise move, Weaver pleaded guilty to the murders Wednesday. Clackamas County District Judge Robert Herndon sentenced him to four terms of life in prison without parole as a result of the plea bargain agreement.

After the hearing, Weaver’s attorney Michael Barker told reporters that his client changed his plea to guilty after receiving a letter from his 15-year-old daughter, Mallori, saying, “Daddy, make it stop.”

Barker reportedly said Weaver received the letter two or three weeks ago. But prosecutor Greg Horner, Clackamas County’s chief deputy district attorney, said Weaver didn’t offer to plead guilty until Sept. 17, the day after Herndon declined to move the trial.

Herndon held a hearing Sept. 15 on Weaver’s request to move the trial. Weaver’s attorneys argued that he could not receive a fair trial in Clackamas County. They presented a public opinion survey that showed the majority of potential jurors believe Weaver killed Ashley and Miranda. But Herndon refused to move the trial and said he would begin calling potential jurors to the courthouse on Jan. 24.

Herndon issued his ruling Sept. 16. According to Horner, Weaver’s attorneys first approached his office with the change of plea offer the next day.

“The first contact we had from them was on the 17th,” said Horner, who would not disclose any details of the discussions.

Weaver did not originally offer to take responsibility for all his crimes, however, according to Terri Hyne, the sister of Miranda’s mother, Michelle Duffey. Instead, Hyne said, Weaver wanted prosecutors to dismiss charges of sexual abuse of a young girl and the rape and attempted murder of his son’s girlfriend.

“The DA’s office originally told us he was willing to plead guilty to the murders, but that he didn’t want anything to happen with the other charges. The DA’s office said they rejected that offer because they wanted Weaver to be held responsible for everything he did,” Hyne said.

In the end, Weaver pleaded no contest to the sexual assault, rape and attempted murder charges.

The Tribune was unable to reach Barker and Weaver’s other attorney, Peter Fahy, by press time. The Tribune has been unable to reach Duffey or Ashley’s mother, Lori Pond, for comment.

Weaver emphasized the impression that he was pleading guilty out of concern for his daughter. He held a small picture of her in his hands as he stood slumped and handcuffed in court.

Behavior changes

Weaver’s demeanor was markedly different when he first described himself to the Tribune on June 30, 2002, as the FBI’s prime suspect in the disappearance of the two Oregon City girls. That was more than six months after Ashley, 12, vanished from an apartment complex near Weaver’s rented house. Miranda, 13, disappeared from the same complex exactly two months later.

By the time he talked to the Tribune, Ashley was dead, her body buried in a barrel under a concrete slab behind his house. Miranda, whose body eventually would be found in a cardboard box in a small storage shed in Weaver’s back yard, also had been killed by then.

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