Trial Opens In Murder Of 13-Year-Old Runaway Prosecutor Says Medlock Got Angry After Hedman Complained Of Pain

By his own admission, John Medlock didn’t need the money.

When detectives caught up to him, the Spokane warehouseman was at a loss to explain why he robbed and clubbed to death a 13-year-old prostitute on Oct. 17, 1993.

The prosecution’s theory: Medlock demanded his money back after the young prostitute complained of pain during intercourse.

“…He became angry,” Spokane County Deputy Prosecutor Steve Kinn said in his opening statement Friday. “He didn’t like the nature of the sexual relations with the victim.”

Autopsy reports show the victim, Rebecca Hedman, suffered vaginal tears - probably caused by a crude condom Medlock fashioned out of a plastic sandwich bag and ponytail holder.

When Hedman refused to return the $50 and began getting dressed, authorities say Medlock became so enraged he grabbed a baseball bat and hit her six times in the back of the head.

Afterward, he allegedly grabbed the cash stuffed in her left sock.

In addressing the eight-woman, fourman jury, Kinn wasted little time unveiling his chief weapon in the murder trial: the defendant’s detailed, hourlong confession to police beginning with the words, “I did it.”

The confession led directly to the alleged murder weapon, found hidden in Medlock’s downtown storage locker. Tests showed trace amounts of human blood on the wooden bat.

Medlock’s account of the killing itself was corroborated by a forensic pathologist’s examination of the body, according to Kinn.

Even so, defense attorney John Muenster contends there is insufficient evidence to support a felony murder conviction. Such a verdict requires prosecutors to prove Hedman died in the course of a robbery.

While Medlock admitted robbing Hedman, Muenster argued that the statement to detectives is unreliable because his client was depressed and suicidal at the time.

The interview took place in a hospital psychiatric ward, Muenster noted.

The trial before Superior Court Judge James Murphy is expected to last about a week.

Testimony began Friday with Spokane Police Detective Don Giese, who headed the investigation.

Giese had come up empty until Dec. 28, 1993, when Medlock suddenly confessed to the crime while he was in a suburb of Vancouver, British Columbia.

Port Moody Police officers arrested Medlock that night after he threatened to commit suicide by jumping off a bridge.

When the officers asked him what was wrong, he blurted out his first confession to murder.

Thirty-six hours later, Giese was in Port Moody, armed with an arrest warrant.

The day of the murder, police believe, Medlock spent most of the morning and afternoon at Playfair, betting on horses and drinking wine coolers, before picking up Hedman at the corner of Second and Madison.

He paid for sex and drove her to his cabin at the Ranch Motel on South Lewis.

After beating Hedman to death, Medlock told detectives, he dragged her body into the bathtub to wash away the blood.

He told police he waited several hours before he rolled her naked body in a wool blanket and dumped it along the Spokane River near Downriver Golf Course.

Medlock, 35, left Spokane and was living with his mother in Port Moody at the time of his arrest.

Authorities believe the defendant, who has no criminal record, was haunted by the killing.

Hedman was a Tacoma runaway who became a crack-smoking prostitute.

Her death sparked Breakthrough, a Spokane familypreservation group, and a Washington law giving parents and authorities more control over runaway children.