REDMOND — A former Oregon death row inmate who got a second chance at freedom could now face nearly 20 years in prison following a conviction for stabbing three people outside a Redmond bar.
Gregory Paul Wilson, 55, was found guilty on Wednesday of three counts of second-degree assault and three counts of unlawful use of a weapon.
He could be sentenced to serve up to 19 years in prison when he appears before a judge next month.
In 1993, Wilson was convicted of aggravated murder in the “torture killing” of 18-year-old Michelle “Misty” Largo, a teen living unsheltered in Portland, and sentenced to death. Wilson eventually won a retrial after appealing his conviction to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In his second trial, he was convicted again, and again, he successfully appealed his case. Days before he was set to go to trial a third time in 2010, Wilson accepted a plea deal for manslaughter. He was released from custody in 2013 after 21 years in custody.
Wilson, one of two men sentenced to death for Largo’s murder, was the last of four living defendants in Largo’s death to have his case resolved. A fifth was murdered.
Wilson’s recent case in Deschutes County is also complex.
On July 23, 2021, the Castle Rock, Washington, resident was in Central Oregon as the companion of a woman to attend a medical conference in Redmond.
Wilson’s three victims consist of one Redmond resident, Chris Gannon, and two of his friends, Clint Holdbrook and Kyle Bates, visiting from out of the area. Throughout Wilson’s trial this month, prosecutors referred to two groups of people involved in the case: Wilson and his associates, whom they called “conference-goers,” and Gannon, Holdbrook and Bates, who were referred to as “locals.”
Wilson is Black and the three locals are white. All four were said to be intoxicated.
The alcohol-soaked fact pattern began in a Redmond bar, the Tumble Inn Tavern, with a dispute over college football. Gannon, a fan of the Washington Huskies, noticed a conference-goer enter the bar wearing a shirt bearing the logo of rival Washington State University.
After a verbal dispute in the bar, the conference-goers elected to return to their hotel several blocks away and go to bed. Wilson was not with that group, but he encountered them outside the hotel and they told him about the dispute in the bar.
Later, Wilson and another man opted to get a drink at the Tumble Inn.
Outside the bar, Gannon was walking to a vehicle when Wilson shouted, “Hey, Butterbean.”
Eric “Butterbean” Esch is a former heavyweight boxer whose distinct look featured a bald head and American-flag boxing trunks. On the night in question, Gannon, who is bald, was wearing American-flag cowboy boots and overalls, with no shirt.
Prosecutor Alison Filo acknowledged in her closing statement the comparison was “apt.”
According to Wilson’s defense, upon hearing the “Butterbean” comment, Gannon became enraged and tackled Wilson to the ground, though the prosecution disagrees with that description. Wilson says he was called a racial epithet by two of the locals. Regardless, the sides agree there was a physical altercation between Wilson and Gannon.
Though police reviewed hundreds of hours of security footage from various businesses, none captured the actual stabbings. An external security camera captured Wilson pulling out a pocket knife and following the local trio around a corner. Moments later, a woman can be seen running into view and screaming.
Wilson maintained he acted in self-defense and pleaded not guilty. His trial before Judge Randy Miller lasted two weeks at a temporary court facility at the Deschutes County Fair & Expo Center.
Defense attorney Katherine Griffith accused police of acting out of confirmation bias, telling the jury that from the moment officers arrived and placed Wilson in handcuffs, they worked to support the conclusion he was guilty, rather than look at the case dispassionately.
In her closing statement, Griffith showed a clip from police body-camera footage in which a member of the trio can clearly be heard calling a handcuffed Wilson the N-word.
“He took out a knife to save his life,” she told jurors. “The state is asking you to ignore the extreme violent acts of Gannon, Holdbrook and Bates.”
Prosecutor Filo called Wilson’s account “revisionist history” that’s not supported by video evidence.
“What you need to determine guilt or innocence, really, remains on these videos,” she said.
Filo told jurors all people have biases. “Just because I’m biased doesn’t mean I’m wrong.”
All three victims testified, as did Wilson. Because Wilson opted to testify in his defense, jurors were allowed to hear about Wilson’s past incarceration for manslaughter and kidnapping. Jurors were also instructed on implicit bias.
Wilson is scheduled to be sentenced June 13.
-- Garrett Andrews; gandrews@bendbulletin.com
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