Man Convicted In ‘87 Slaying Dies In Prison Ex-Police Chief Was Found Guilty Of Killing Kellogg Housemate
The death of Idaho prisoner No. 26889 this year was the closing scene in one of the Silver Valley’s most publicized murder cases.
David William Yon was a former Pinehurst police chief convicted of shooting his Kellogg housemate in the back of the head in January 1987.
Interest in the trial was heightened by the men’s gay relationship in a macho mining community and by the fact that both men were well-known in law enforcement circles. Victim Joe Bussell worked for the Shoshone County Sheriff’s Department.
Yon died April 5. News didn’t reach the Panhandle until this month when a Kellogg attorney handling Yon’s estate published a legal notice.
Word also made its way to the California home of Lorna Vasquez, Bussell’s mother.
“He was always so thoughtful, especially with me,” she said of her son. “Even when he was in Germany, he sent me flowers on my birthday.”
But relations weren’t so smooth between Bussell and his dad, Joseph Bussell. When the retired Wallace miner died two years ago, Joe Bussell Jr. was not mentioned in his father’s obituary.
The strain existed, too, between the younger Bussell and his brother. “We never did see eye to eye on a lot of things,” recalled Charlie Bussell of Pinehurst.
Joe Bussell was 35 when he was killed. He was a Wallace High School graduate who later was a busboy, a sawmill worker, a serviceman. He went to North Idaho College for a year before working for the sheriff, his mother recalled. He left that job in 1976.
Yon was Pinehurst police chief in 1980 and 1981. He had a daughter and ex-wife, who couldn’t be located for comment.
During the trial, Yon wiped his eyes as he listened to the recording of his phone call to the Sheriff’s Department.
“Joe Bussell just tried to shoot me and we wrestled over the gun,” he said to the dispatcher. He told officers who arrived at his door that Bussell had threatened to kill him and a handgun went off in the ensuing struggle.
On a bed lay the .357-caliber weapon with a full cylinder except for one empty chamber. Bussell’s body was on the bedroom floor.
While awaiting trial, Yon asked for the return of a ring and necklace he had given Bussell. He said in a pre-sentence report that he and Bussell had been married.
Then-Deputy Prosecutor Jack Rose said community sentiment about Yon’s sexual preference had no effect on the way he handled the case.
“I don’t deal with public sentiment, just with the facts,” he said.
Rose, now in private practice, didn’t return a call seeking comment on the case. Neither did attorney Michael Peacock, who is handling Yon’s estate.
Yon was sentenced to an indeterminate 20-year term. He sought parole in 1992, ‘93 and ‘95, but it was denied each time.
Yon was transferred to the prison medical unit on Nov. 22, 1996, according to a spokesman for the state Department of Correction.
Records indicating the cause of death weren’t immediately available.
At his sentencing, Yon said he wanted to minister to homosexuals in Shoshone County, educating them on topics such as AIDS.
“It’s not a sick, violent aspect of my life,” he said of his desire to minister. “It’s a very important social commitment.”
, DataTimes