Trucker Seeks Plea Deal In Killings Proposed Agreement Would Keep Man From Death Penalty

The man claiming to be the so-called “Happy Face” serial killer responsible for the deaths of eight women is trying to cut a deal with Oregon prosecutors to avoid the death penalty.

Keith Hunter Jesperson, 40, is being held at the Clark County jail in neighboring Vancouver, Wash., pending trial on charges he kidnapped, raped and strangled a Camas, Wash., woman last March.

The Oregonian reported Saturday that Jesperson’s lawyer, Tom Phelan, already has reached an agreement with Multnomah County prosecutors in the death of Taunja Ann Bennett, 23, of Portland.

Two other people are serving life sentences for the murder of Bennett, whose strangled body was found in 1990 in the Columbia River Gorge.

LaVerne A. Pavlinac and John Sosnovske were convicted of killing Bennett, but Pavlinac since has claimed she falsely confessed in order to end an abusive relationship with Sosnovske by sending him to prison.

Both had claimed they were innocent at the time of their trials in 1991, but Sosnovske eventually settled for a plea bargain to avoid the death penalty in a case built mostly on testimony from Pavlinac.

The Oregonian reported that Multnomah County prosecutors have agreed not to seek the death penalty against Jesperson if he turns out to be Bennett’s killer and is charged with her murder.

The agreement will allow Oregon investigators to question Jesperson at the Clark County jail.

Superior Court Judge Robert L. Harris had threatened Jesperson with sanctions after Jesperson wrote several letters to Portland-area newspapers and TV stations two weeks ago confessing to eight slayings in Oregon, California, Florida, Washington and Wyoming.