The woman accused of aiding in the death of a Portland man in Woodland last year has pleaded not guilty.
Andrea Rechelle Stewart, 51, of Vancouver, appeared in a jail uniform Tuesday beside her attorney, Josh Gooday of Gooday Law, in the Cowlitz County Jail courtroom.
Gooday requested Stewart’s bail — currently set at $100,000 — be reduced by half.
Cowlitz County Superior Court Judge Patricia Fassett ruled against the request.
Stewart’s single charge stems from allegedly helping Joseph Klimas, IV, 46, of Vancouver shoot Cesar Reyes, Jr., 46, in the head and then dumping the body on a logging road in Ariel in November.
Stewart is charged with first-degree rendering criminal assistance.
As she was escorted out of the courtroom Tuesday, she mouthed “I love you,” to a person in the gallery.
The case
Stewart was arrested on May 19 at her apartment in Vancouver.
Using her cell phone data records, authorities placed her phone in the same location as Klimas’s device from the night of Nov. 10 to the morning of Nov. 11. Her phone was also in the location where Reyes’s body was discovered, a police report states.
The report says she texted Klimas on the evening on Nov. 10.
“Hey, I need to talk to you! It’s about the real deal with Pauline,” the message states. (Police speculate autocorrect changed Reyes’s nickname of Pelon to Pauline.)
“I need to know if what I just heard is the real truth and I was told that you know. If that is the case, then we need to handle it tonight and give justice to others,” the message continues.
A police report on Klimas states he told authorities he went to a home on Nov. 11 in the 1150 block of Whalen Road in Woodland with Stewart to purchase a firearm, and Reyes was at the site.
A witness told law enforcement both Klimas and Steward wanted to kill Reyes at the Whalen Road property and dispose of the remains by feeding them to pigs.
Stewart admitted to authorities to driving Klimas to the Whalen Road residence on the morning of Nov. 11, but denied that Reyes was there, according to the report.
Reyes’s body was discovered face down at about 8 p.m. that evening on a remote logging road near the 6500 block of Lewis River Road in Ariel, near Lake Merwin.
An autopsy performed by the Cowlitz County Coroner’s Office ruled his death a homicide after finding a gunshot wound in his head and neck.
Stewart’s next court hearing is scheduled for June 17.
