黑料福利社

Patricia Reno told her then-son-in-law Randy Shea Gardner when he came back from jail in 2018 that he needed to get off her property.

But what Gardner said next prompted her to gather her daughter and grandchildren and get away as quickly as possible.

Reno told a Yakima County Superior Court jury Wednesday that Gardner took her into the barn on the Gleed property and moved some dirt from the floor.聽

He said there was a body buried in the spot.

A deputy Yakima County prosecuting attorney said that witnesses and evidence will demonstrate that Gardner, 53, killed Julian Wabinga and then forced another person staying on the property to help bury him in the barn in 2017.

鈥淧ay attention, and keep your wits about you,鈥� Richard K. Petersen advised the jurors about the chain of events in the case.

Gardner鈥檚 attorneys, Marjorie Alumbaugh and Etoy Alford Jr., did not give an opening statement Wednesday.

Second trial

The trial is the second one for Gardner in Wabinga鈥檚 death. A jury convicted Gardner in 2022 of second-degree murder in the death of Wabinga, 45, second-degree assault and felony harassment for threatening Douglas Irwin -- who was living on the property with Gardner and Wabinga -- to kill him if he didn鈥檛 help bury the body and not tell anyone about it, and first-degree unlawful possession of a firearm based on his prior assault conviction in Utah in the 1990s.

Gardner鈥檚 conviction and his 40.5-year prison sentence were overturned in 2024 by three judges on the Spokane-based Division III Court of Appeals. The appellate court found that Yakima County sheriff鈥檚 detectives ignored Gardner鈥檚 request that he wanted to have a lawyer present if he were considered a suspect in the killing. The judges ordered a new trial.

Gardner entered an Alford plea April 16 to the unlawful possession of a firearm charge. The plea allows him to maintain his innocence while admitting that prosecutors had enough evidence to convince a jury to convict him.

Had that charge gone to trial, Gardner would either had to admit that his criminal record bars him from possessing firearms or prosecutors would list his prior convictions for the jury.

Case outline

In his opening statement, Petersen outlined his case for jurors, depicting Gardner as a heavy methamphetamine user who invited Irwin, Wabinga and another man to stay on his mother-in-law鈥檚 property without getting her consent, and later shot Wabinga after Gardner鈥檚 truck that was left at Wabinga鈥檚 property was impounded.

Gardner, using his then-wife鈥檚 pistol, shot Wabinga as Wabinga was walking away from him, accompanied by Gardner鈥檚 dog, which Petersen said further fueled Gardner鈥檚 anger. The first shot shattered Wabinga鈥檚 thigh bone, causing him to fall to the ground.

鈥淎fter the first shot, (Gardner) walked up to him and put the gun to his head and executed him,鈥� Petersen said. 鈥淎s he was walking up to him, Julian was begging for his life.

鈥淏ut it didn鈥檛 matter.鈥�

Petersen said Irwin witnessed the shooting, and Gardner made him help bury Wabinga in the dirt floor of Reno鈥檚 barn, and pointed the gun at Irwin and told him not to tell anyone what happened or he鈥檇 be killed as well.

Jurors, Petersen said, will also hear how Ashley Heether, Gardner鈥檚 then-wife, heard the gunshots and took her children to the back of the house and tried to keep them from finding out what happened, and the fear she had for her own life.聽

Body in the barn

The state鈥檚 case will also include how Gardner, while in the Yakima County jail on an unrelated burglary charge, told of a body buried in the barn, and how 鈥渃omically incompetent鈥� cadaver dogs missed it, Petersen said. And jurors will hear how Gardner tried to blame the killing on Irwin and Heether.

Then on June 5, 2018, Gardner, fresh out of jail, called sheriff鈥檚 deputies to the house and told them that there was a body in the barn, and proceeded to dig him up, Petersen told jurors.

Reno, who said she considered Gardner a rude man, called police when Gardner came over the night he was released from jail, but said the deputies let him stay on the property. Then, that morning she told Gardner he had to leave by noon, and that is when he told her that there was a body in the barn.

Gardner showed her where it was, and then told Reno that Heether killed Wabinga, Reno said.

She got Heether, her friend and her children out of the house and, at a nearby fire station told Heether聽what Gardner had said, Reno testified. They were later called back to the house to talk to deputies, who by that time had exhumed Wabinga鈥檚 body.

Reno also testified that she had bought Heether the gun that Gardner used, and that it was later sold to help pay off utility bills.

The trial before Judge Kevin Naught, which began Monday with jury selection, is scheduled for 12 business days.