2 Bound Over On Murder Charges Teenagers Accused Of Killing Forest Service Engineer

Two teenagers on Friday were bound over to district court on murder and theft charges in the slaying of Forest Service engineer David Wheeler on the Payette National Forest.

If Eric Brown and Ronald Stiner go to trial in the slaying, their worst foes could be Brown’s father and two men Brown met in jail.

The trio’s testimony before Magistrate Gregory Culet on Friday was damaging to 18-year-old Brown and 16-year-old Stiner.

“He didn’t come out and say in words ‘I did it,”’ Edward Brown testified about talking with his son, “but I got the impression that he did.”

Culet bound over the two to 3rd District Court on charges of murder and possession of stolen property. A hearing was set for next Friday before District Judge Dennis Goff.

Brown and Stiner are accused of the April 26 shooting of Wheeler, 49, of Baker City, Ore., a civil engineer with the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest in eastern Oregon. He was assigned to the Payette and was inspecting bridges near the Mann Creek Guard station when he was shot.

Elmore County Sheriff’s Det. Catherine Wolfe testified she met the two teenagers April 23 when they were taken to a non-secure trailer in Mountain Home in connection with an earlier theft. Two days later, she said, she was told they had escaped and the search began.

Brown and his father lived near the trailer. The elder Brown, testifying as a hostile witness, said he found his doors damaged. He also discovered a .357-caliber pistol and .22-caliber rifle and ammunition were missing.

The elder Brown said that when he visited his son in jail after Wheeler’s death, Eric told him he sawed the barrel off the rifle. When asked why, “he said it would be easier to hide under a trenchcoat.”

Edward Brown testified his son told him they threw the rifle in the Snake River. It has not been recovered.

Chad Self, 18, of Weiser, was in the Washington County Jail on a traffic violation and shared a cell with Brown.

“He talked about the publicity of what they’d done,” Self said of Brown. “I asked him how he could kill Mr. Wheeler because I couldn’t understand … he said the little voice in his head told him to. There was no remorse - blank, cold, I guess.”

Self said Brown talked about the shooting, saying one of the teens asked Wheeler for water, “and when he turned around (Brown) put the gun right here,” gesturing to the nape of the neck, “and pulled the trigger.”

Charles Fisher of Parma also was in the jail and shared a cell with Brown.

“When he saw the newscasts, it was like he was proud of it. He’d get kind of a sick smile on his face,” he said.

“When he saw them searching the river for the gun, he stated they were looking about 12 miles too far down the river,” Fisher said.

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