A Vancouver man pleaded guilty on Friday to shooting another man and then leaving the body on a logging road in Ariel in 2024.
Cowlitz County Superior Court Judge Jill Karmy accepted Joseph Klimas' guilty plea to first-degree murder and tampering with a witness. He was scheduled to go to trial next week, but those dates have been scratched, and only a sentencing hearing is scheduled for April 15.
Cowlitz County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Eric Bentson told The Daily News that Klimas, 47, of Vancouver, agreed to serve a 300-month prison stint and 36 months of community custody. His sentencing range is between 271 and 361 months.
Cowlitz County Superior Court Judge Jill Karmy accepted Joseph Klimas' guilty plea to first-degree murder and tampering with a witness. He was scheduled to go to trial next week, but those dates have been scratched, and only a sentencing hearing is scheduled for April 15.
Cowlitz County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Eric Bentson told The Daily News that Klimas, 47, of Vancouver, agreed to serve a 300-month prison stint and 36 months of community custody. His sentencing range is between 271 and 361 months.
He is accused of shooting Cesar Reyes, 46, of Portland in the head, near a slough in Woodland and then dumping his body on a logging road close to the 6500 block of Lewis River Road in Ariel, near Lake Merwin. The body was later discovered on Nov.11
According to court documents, the authorities became aware of Klimas' involvement in Reyes's death when he called an inmate facing a murder charge and claimed he had “done something similar."
Before Friday's plea, Klimas was also facing an unlawful possession of a firearm, unlawful disposal of human remains, and bribing a witness.
Andrea Rechelle Stewart, 52, of Vancouver pleaded guilty last year to first-degree rendering criminal assistance for helping Klimas. Stewart admitted to authorities to driving Klimas to Woodland.
Using her cell phone data records, authorities placed her phone in the same location as Klimas’ 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.
