A fifth co-defendant accused of being involved in the fatal beating and shooting of a man whose body was found in a Hockinson-area shed was formally charged Tuesday.
Traci Lynn Mendez, 41, entered not-guilty pleas in Clark County Superior Court to first- and second-degree murder in the slaying of 34-year-old Raymond C. Brandon.
The hearing was continued, however, in order to set a trial date. Her co-defendants are scheduled for trial Oct. 23, but that date falls outside her right to a speedy trial. Mendez’s attorney, Jeff Barrar, took up the issue Thursday with the prosecution, and her trial was scheduled for Sept. 25.
Brandon’s body was found April 27, nearly a week after he was killed, in a shed at Mendez’s residence, 15308 N.E. 172nd Ave., southeast of Hockinson High School.
Investigators believe Mendez conspired with two couples — Neil Allen Alway, 39, and Ashley Lorraine Barry, 31, and John Michael West, 43, and Ashley L. Wideman, 23, all transients — to lure Brandon and his girlfriend, Allison Fields, to the residence to settle a debt over a Subaru Forester he was driving, according to an affidavit of probable cause.
When Brandon and Fields arrived at Mendez’s house on the morning of April 20, they were ambushed by the group. During the chaotic confrontation, Alway and West led Brandon outside, where he was beaten and fatally shot in the chest. Fields was forced to stay with the group or risk being killed herself, the affidavit states.
Afterward, Mendez drove the group and Fields in her SUV to a farm off Northeast 119th Street, and Fields eventually escaped, court records said.
