BEND, Oregon (AP) — A judge has thrown out a former security guard’s purported confession to killing a woman at the central Oregon community college where he worked.
Deschutes County Judge A. Michael Adler on Friday ruled that it wasn’t clear if Edwin Lara invoked his constitutional right to an attorney.
But Adler allowed some evidence obtained from Lara’s statements, including the finding of the body of 23-year-old Kaylee Sawyer. Adler ruled detectives would have found the body in the open off a highway west of Redmond without Lara’s statements.
The 32-year-old Lara is accused of kidnapping, sexually assaulting and killing Sawyer in July 2016 while on duty as a Central Oregon Community College security guard.
The California Highway Patrol later arrested Lara after a high-speed chase on the main freeway along the West Coast.