Dead by Sunset: Perfect Husband, Perfect Killer? (98 page)

He demanded absolute and unquestioning obedience from them because he

was their father, and vet he often treated them as peers, as small

adults whom he dragged into press conferences and discussions that

would be terribly upsetting to any child.
 
Sara was trying to protect

them now, but Brad did everything he could to undermine her.

He phoned his sons often and Sara accepted the collect calls.
 
But it

was soon obvious that Brad was telling his sons outrageous lies about

her.
 
She did not cut off his phone contact with the boys, but she

informed Brad in writing that she would be taping his calls and

monitoring what was said.
 
It scarcely slowed Brad down.
 
He told the

boys they would be better off in a foster home than living with Sara.

He said she was a lesbian who hated men, "and you are little men."
 
He

berated them for calling her Mom "after all she's done."
 
He suggested

to his sons that Sara was giving them drugs.

Sara was trying to follow counselors' advice, she didn't want to cut

the boys off completely from their father.
 
But understandably, she

didn't want them to listen to a steady stream of propaganda against her

either.
 
It was hard to find a middle ground.

Brad's first state-appointed attorney was Timothy Dunn.
 
Dunn was a

capable attorney, but he was a mild-mannered man and his client would

find fault with almost everything he did.
 
Even in court appearances,

it was soon obvious to spectators that Brad intended to run the show.

He was always tugging at Dunn's sleeve or whispering in his ear.

The first real skirmish in what would prove to be a long, long road to

a criminal verdict took place in Judge Alan C. Bonebrake's courtroom

309-C in the historic Washington County Courthouse on August 24

1993

Brad was seeking to be released from jail on bail pending his criminal

trial.

Not surprisingly, Scott Upham wanted Cunningham kept inside the

Washington County jail.
 
If ever a defendant had shown a tendency to

disappear, it was this one.

Only a handful of spectators waited on benches outside ludge

Bonebrake's courtroom.
 
Mike Shinn was there, Betty and Mary Troseth,

Jim Karr, Jack Kincaid, a few reporters.
 
It might well have been a

simple traffic or domestic dispute hearing for all the interest Brad's

bail hearing aroused.

A broad-shouldered man dressed in a dark suitþprobably an attorney from

the look of himþapproached the courtroom door He was carrying a huge

file, and he had to juggle it as he tried to turn the knob.
 
He

scrupulously ignored the others waiting to get in.
 
Only on a closer

look were the handcuffs on his wrists apparent.
 
It was Brad.
 
He

wasn't alone, he was followed by two court officers, J. C. Crossland,

a huge man who stood six feet seven and weighed a good 250 pounds, and

a slender female security officer.
 
Their eyes never left Brad.
 
He

moved into the courtroom easily.
 
If he was embarrassed or felt

diminished by his restraints, he didn't show it.

The bail hearing would take more than four daysþas long as most

trials.

Scott Upham gave an overview of his case and presented more than

twenty-five witnesses.
 
The small gallery saw a minitrial, the "Cliffs

notes" of the real trial to come.
 
Featuring a parade of witnesses

beginning with paramedic Tom Duffy and ending with Oregon State Police

criminalist Julia Hinkley, the proceedings were fascinating, intense,

and comprehensive.

A handful of attractive women who had once loved Brad took the witness

stand.
 
They answered Upham's questionsþbut almost reluctantly,

offering no more than they were asked.
 
One spectator commented later

in the hallway, "You know why they're not talking, don't you?
 
They're

scared to death he may be getting out on bail!"

Defense Attorney Tim Dunn argued that the State had no direct evidence

linking his client to Cheryl Keeton's murder, and that witnesses'

memories had become so faulty with the passage of time that they gave

conflicting statements.
 
On Friday, August 27, 1993, however, Judge

Bonebrake ruled that Upham had met the State's burden of proof m

presenting evidence to show why Brad should be held over for tria The

first trial date was set for January 1994.
 
But Brad had fired Dunn as

his attorney and could not, of course, proceed.
 
He needed time for his

new attorneys to get up to speed on his case, and there were voluminous

files for them to go through.
 
His new court-appointed attorneys were

two of the best criminal defense attorneys in the state of Oregon: Tim

Lyons and J. Kevin Hunt.
 
Hunt was an expert on DNA and a supenor

researcher, and Lyons was smooth, sharp, and quick on his feet.

Hunt was an intense young man who rarely smiled, Lyons was more lald

back and smiled often.

There was a scheduling problem.
 
In fact, there were to be problems

month after month.
 
Hearings would be set and postponed.
 
Lyons was

involved with another murder trial in which the victim was a small

child.
 
It was impossible for him to know when he could go to trial

with Brad.
 
An omnibus hearing was on the docket for June 6, put off

until June 14, and then rescheduled for July 5. Omnibus hearings take

place before the trial itself to give both sides a chance to bring up

issues that concern them and may be ruled on before the trial begins.

In many trials, it saves time.
 
No one could yet have any idea how

time-consuming Brad's legal manueverings would be.

As the weeks passed, Brad continued to bombard Sara's home with letters

and phone calls.
 
He knew that his calls and letters were being

monitored and that Sara had informed Judge Bonebrake that she was going

to do so to protect the boys.
 
Brad rarely failed to complain about

that on the envelopes.
 
One envelope had a cartoon of a rabbit.
 
The

balloon over its head read, ". . . and I thought I had big ears!"

Another cartoon of a child talking into the phone read, "You mean she's

still doing it?

. .

. Man, she's either a straight up freak, or dominantly stupid!.

Beneath the phone, Brad had printed "TAP-TAP-TAP."
 
Most of the

envelopes' cartoons had to do with sex, vibrators, batteries, and

sexual toys most fathers would not discuss with preadolescent boys.

For years Brad had kept his sons continually on the move to be

reassured that they would not testify at a grand jury hearing or in a

trial.
 
He was doing his best now to continue influencing them through

phone calls and letters.
 
In June 1994, with his trial date scheduled

for August, he hand-printed a four-page letter to Jess, Michael, and

Phillipþa document full of outrageous liesþthat detailed for them how

he was being unjustly persecuted by a crooked prosecution team and, of

course, by Sara.
 
Brad had once blamed Mike Shinn, John Burke, Betty

Troseth, and Sara Gordon for the problems in his life.
 
Now he included

Scott Upham as a scheming "co-conspirator."
 
Never since her death had

Brad referred to Cheryl as the boys' "mom," and he didn't in this

letter.

Brad wrote to tell his sons to remember that "Cheryl died clutching a

small wad of hair in her hand.
 
It was determined that the hair was not

my hair, and the hair was not necessarily hers."
 
Not tnee.
 
"Scott

Upham (Sara's co-conspirator) will not further test the hair and will

not let me see it to do a DNA test."
 
Not true.

He told his sons that "your mother had a date with a policeman (Finch

who later investigated her homocide [sic]).
 
This is the same police

officer who interviewed each of you days after her death, and totally

destroyed my life and work career by his actions and statements."

This was also untrueþbut the "affair with Jerry Finch" story would

become one of Brad's favorite red herrings in his upcoming trial.

Brad wrote to his sons that their dead mother was a cocaine user, that

his attorneys were not permitted to look at bloody handprints in the

van, that the crime scene had been deliberately contaminated by Jerry

Finch, and that all manner of evidence had been deliberately destroyed

þagain by Jerry Finch.
 
He discussed his own sexual liaisons quite

openly, and accused Sara once again of being a bisexual.
 
That his

intended audience was aged thirteen, eleven, and nine didn't cause him

to hold anything back.

"We have reason to believe you boys have been tampered with' too," he

wrote.
 
"Either drugs or hypnosis.
 
We think Sara and Upham have tried

memory alteration or implantation techniques.... We think Sara Upham

are using mermory therapy' wherein they, through a hypnotist, are

plantzng by suggestion new memories into your minds.
 
Sara will punish

me, hurt me, cause me to be found guilty of a crime I had nothing to do

with.
 
She wants to inflict great hurt and harm upon your dad in

retaliation for my having an affair with Lynn.... We have some leads

she is paying off people.
 
Jack is involved.
 
AND THERE"S MORE!!"

Dr. Ron Turco had described Brad as being a prime example of

"malignant narcissism," and his messages to his sons seemed to verify

that diagnosis.
 
He had always treated them as his possessions and he

needed them now to be his alibi witnesses for his movements on the

night their mother was murdered.
 
He had finally accepted the fact that

whether he wanted to or not, he was going to trial.

i l Brad vacillated between wanting a speedy trial and doing whatever

he could to delay it.
 
He was frustrated by his belief that Tim Lyons

was not giving him enough time for conferences.
 
He didn't like the