PENDLETON, Ore. — A 23-year-old man convicted of killing an Oregon corrections officer while stealing the officer’s pickup truck has been sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
Umatilla County District Attorney Daniel Primus said the sentence was handed down Wednesday. Judge Daniel Hill had the option of allowing Joshua Charles Weeks the possibility of parole after 30 years.
Weeks had pleaded guilty in a plea bargain that spared him the possibility of a death sentence.
He was accused of killing 42-year-old Buddy Herron, who stopped outside Pendleton in November 2011 to offer Weeks help with his car, which was stuck. Herron was headed to work at Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution.
Investigators said Weeks stabbed Herron repeatedly and took the truck. He was arrested later when the truck rolled in a field.
