Truck Driver Asks To Enter Murder Plea

A truck driver who has claimed he killed eight women along his interstate route asked Thursday for a hearing so he can plead guilty to a Clark County murder.

Keith Hunter Jesperson, 40, had pleaded innocent to charges he kidnapped, raped and strangled Julie Ann Winningham, 41, of Camas in the sleeper cab of his truck tractor on March 10.

His plea hearing has been set for Wednesday.

In handwritten letters to news media, Jesperson has claimed that he killed eight women, including Winningham, three in California, two in Oregon and one each in Florida and Wyoming.

Because the letters have been decorated with smiley faces, The Oregonian newspaper of Portland dubbed him the “happy face killer.”

Based on information from Jesperson, Nebraska authorities found a woman’s body last month along Interstate 80.

In a Portland case, Jesperson has said innocent people are serving life sentences for a crime he committed.

Jesperson is being held at the Clark County jail.