CANYON CITY — The John Day man facing charges of murdering a 41-year-old Lincoln City woman in February 2025 will spend the rest of his life at the Oregon State Hospital. Gary Cavan, 43, was the subject of a stipulated facts trial Friday, Nov. 6, in Grant County Circuit Court. Judge Robert Raschio presided over the trial and found Cavan guilty except for insanity. The state accused Cavan of the brutal killing of his former girlfriend, Janelle Klaar, after workers at the John Day Motel on Feb. 28, 2025, discovered her badly beaten body. That sparked a search for Cavan that ended with his arrest March 5, 2025, at the old Sag’s Motel along Highway 26 outside Prairie City. The state charged Cavan with second-degree murder, three counts of first-degree burglary and one count each of second-degree burglary, second-degree theft and second-degree criminal mischief in relation to Klaar’s death. Cavan has been in the custody of the Grant County Jail since his arrest.
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BAKER CITY — A judge has ordered a mental health evaluation for Jonathon Russell Romine, the 45-year-old Baker City man tased twice by Baker City Police after he fled from officers and resisted arrest on Oct. 25. Judge Matt Shirtcliff in Baker County Circuit Court signed an order on Tuesday, Nov. 10, for a mental health consultation for Romine, who has been in the Baker County Jail since his arrest. His bail is $200,000. A day earlier, on Nov. 9, Romine’s court-appointed attorney, Kyra Rohner, submitted a notice to the court stating that she was not sure Romine was mentally able to proceed in the criminal case. Romine had been scheduled to enter a plea to several charges on Nov. 16, but Shirtcliff canceled that and instead scheduled a hearing, to consider Romine’s mental condition, on Nov. 23 at 9 a.m. Baker City Police arrested Romine about 2:35 p.m. on Oct. 25 near Albertsons grocery on Campbell Street.
BAKER CITY — A Baker City man accused of hitting a letter carrier in the head with the stock of a BB gun in Baker City nearly two years ago has pleaded guilty to one count of assault on a federal employee using a dangerous weapon. Randy Warren Kahn, 50, has been in federal custody since he was arrested in December 2024. Kahn, who initially pursued an insanity defense but earlier this year withdrew that defense, was in a federal mental health treatment center in Missouri for several months in 2025 and 2026. Kahn pleaded guilty on Oct. 21, according to federal court records. He has not been sentenced, according to records. The maximum sentence is 20 years in federal prison and a fine up to $250,000, according to the plea agreement. Kahn admitted that on Dec. 14, 2024, in south Baker City he fired a shot from a BB gun when mail carrier Junya Uemura was delivering packages to Kahn’s home.
