By David Lohr
November 28, 2007
SPOKANE, WA (Crime Library) — The attorney for a Newman Lake man claims his client acted in self-defense when he tied a rope around the neck of an Eastern Washington University sophomore and caused him to be dragged to death behind a pickup truck last weekend.
At 11:27 p.m. Saturday, the Pend Oreille Sheriff's Office received a 911 call from 17-year-old Justin Daniel Sinn, who told them that 20-year-old Jerid Scott Sturman-Camyn was chasing him down the road with an ax. As the emergency dispatcher was taking down Justin's information, a second person called into the sheriff's office and reported that a pickup truck was dragging a body down LeClerc Road roughly 45 miles north of Spokane.
When Pend Oreille sheriff's deputies arrived on the scene, assisted by the Kalispel Tribal Police and U.S. Border Patrol, they found Justin sitting in the truck parked off the side of the road by milepost 10. When investigators looked behind the truck, they discovered Jerid's motionless body lying on the ground.
According to Sheriff Jerry Weeks, Jerid and his father, Jerry Scott Camyn, had been camping with Justin, his father (Wendell C. Sinn Jr., 45, of Newman Lake), and another father—son pair at a hunting campsite along the Pend Oreille River. Some of the men had started drinking Saturday night. Jerid purportedly became belligerent and began to threaten the people at the campsite with an ax. Details remain sketchy; however, at some point Wendell Sinn Jr. told his son to get in a Ford F-250 truck and "be ready to leave if things got bad." As the altercation escalated, Sinn allegedly placed a rope around Jerid's neck, attached the other end to the rear hitch of the truck and then yelled for his son to drive away. Justin has claimed he was unaware he was dragging Jerid's body down the road for a distance of approximately 13 miles.
Wendell Sinn Jr. was arrested at the scene and charged with second-degree murder in Jerid's death.
Brett Allanson, described by Dailyevergreen.com as a "close friend" of Jerid's, told the website he was stunned when he learned of the incident.
"I just don't see what type of person would want to do that to somebody," Brett said. "I've never seen him get angry the way they're talking. He wasn't afraid to stand up to somebody but he would never threaten anybody's life... He's a nice guy, always happy about everything and he loved to play sports."
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| Jerid Sturman-Camyn's MySpace page |
The title at the top of Jerid's MySpace.com profile reads: "Go big or Go home." Within the profile he lists some of his interests as hunting, fishing, MMA (mixed martial arts), football, and wrestling. In the "About Me" section of the profile he wrote:
"Well my name is Jerid Sturman-Camyn but most of my friends call me Bubba. I've been known to get a little wild at times and I like to live by the motto 'go big or go home!' And I think If you're gonna do something, do it balls to the wall! I go to Eastern Washington University and I'm going there for civil engineering...I think. I like the outdoors, hunting, fishing, and camping. I just started fighting out of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu of Spokane and it pretty much kicks ass!! I've wrestled since I was 5 and like to play football and I love fighting."
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