Kondro pleads guilty to killing
Jason...@virgin.net
Kondro pleads guilty to killing Kara
Rudd and Rima Traxler
Laurie Smith The Daily News
Joseph Robert Kondro made a bombshell announcement today
by
confessing to the murder of two Longview girls,
admitting he killed Rima
Traxler in 1985 and Kara Rudd in 1996.
Kondro, 39, may have dodged a
death
sentence by answering for both
crimes. He
pleaded guilty this morning to
first-degree
felony murder for the slaying of
12-year-old
Kara and second-degree
intentional murder
for the killing of 8-year-old
Rima.
"This really brings closure to
two of the most
horrible crimes ever to be
committed in this
county," Longview Police Chief
Bob
Burgreen said afterward.
Speaking softly and
dispassionately, Kondro
admitted to kidnapping and
strangling the
girls. As he read a statement
into the record,
Kara’s mother, Janet Holden,
heaved a sob
and Rima’s mom, Danelle Kinne, grimaced with anguish.
For Kinne, his announcement ends nearly 14 years of
torment over the
unknown fate of her missing child.
Kondro had been formally charged only with Kara’s
kidnapping, rape and
murder. At a trial scheduled to begin in mid-April,
prosecutors planned to
seek the death penalty should a jury find him guilty as
originally charged of
aggravated first-degree murder.
"We’re giving up the death penalty, and he’s going to be
in prison until he’s
past 100 years old," Cowlitz County Prosecutor Jim
Stonier said of the plea
bargain that was signed and sealed in Superior Court
this morning.
Stonier said he wanted to send Kondro to the death
chamber, but felt it was
worth letting him live in exchange for the answers Kinne
has sorely needed
since May 15, 1985, when Rima disappeared while walking
home from St.
Helens Elementary School.
Remaining seated, Kondro read this statement as to Count
I of the amended
information:
"On or about Nov. 21, 1996, I did intentionally
restrain, abduct or kidnap
Kara Rudd by transporting her in my car to an abandoned
building located in
Cowlitz County. ... I committed the act of kidnapping
Kara Rudd with the
intent to inflict bodily injury upon her. ... I did in
fact cause her death by
means of strangulation."
Kara disappeared from outside Monticello Middle School
on the morning
she died. Her body was found stuffed under an abandoned
car on Mount
Solo west of Longview six weeks later.
As to Count II, Kondro continued reading: "On or about
May 15, 1985 ... I
did with intent to cause the death of Rima Traxler ...
cause her death by
means of strangulation," then concealed her body on a
creek in Cowlitz
County.
Asked by Judge Jim Warme whether he also committed a sex
offense
against Kara, Kondro replied, "Yes."
Aside from twitching one foot and wiggling his toes,
Kondro, who was
brought to court in his stocking feet, sat almost
motionless as he answered
the judge’s questions.
Last week, Kondro’s defense team approached prosecutors
with an offer to
plead guilty to a reduced charge in the Rudd case and
also to the uncharged
Traxler case, Stonier said.
In an interview Saturday with Longview police Detective
Scott McDaniel,
Kondro revealed the whereabouts of Rima’s remains. That
location should
remain undisclosed in the interest of protecting the
crime scene, Stonier said.
"We’re going to have to conduct a very extensive search
in that area, and the
weather isn’t allowing us to do it yet," he said.
Before court today, Kinne said, "Pray for the rain to go
away for about a
week so we can do a search." She flew in for today’s
hearing from
Colorado, where she lives on a farm in Cripple Creek.
Kondro’s attorney Michael Foister expressed doubt in
court today that any
physical evidence will be recovered after so many years.
Foister said part of Kondro’s motivation for pleading
guilty in the Traxler
case "is his concern and empathy for the surviving
family members."
Both Kinne and Holden said they’ve been feeling kind of
numb since
authorities contacted them about the new developments.
"I feel happy and relieved that he’s finally going to
man up to what he did to
both girls," Holden said early this morning.
As Kara’s grandmother Pat Rheaume left the courtroom in
tears this
morning, she nodded and said, "It’s a good day."
Kondro will be sentenced by Warme next Friday afternoon.
At the earliest,
he would be eligible for release at age 101 under a
recommendation agreed
to by both sides, Chief Deputy Prosecutor Sue Baur said.
His standard sentencing range for the murder convictions
tops out at almost
56 years. That would begin running in 2010, when he
finishes serving a
14-year prison term in another case stemming from the
rape and molestation
of two girls who lived to tell of Kondro’s predation.
Regarding evidence of his involvement in Rima’s
disappearance, Baur told
Warme that a witness has identified Kondro as the driver
of a vehicle who
stopped and yelled to a child as she walked near 26th
Avenue and Beech
Street on the afternoon of her disappearance: "Rima,
Rima, come here."
The parents of both Rima and Kara had considered Kondro
a close friend.