PENDLETON, Ore. (AP) — A 22-year-old man has told a judge he understands the murder charge against him in the fatal stabbing of an Eastern Oregon corrections officer who stopped to help a stranded motorist.
Joshua Charles Weeks of Portland appeared Wednesday by video monitor before Umatilla County Circuit Judge Lynn Hampton in Pendleton. The judge denied bail and set a Dec. 7 preliminary hearing.
Authorities say 42-year-old Buddy Ray Herron was driving to work late Monday night at the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution in Pendleton when he stopped to help and was attacked.
Weeks is also accused of stealing Herron’s truck.
The Oregonian reports (http://bit.ly/ssRF7f ) investigators say in court documents that Weeks confessed to the killing.
