A 58-year-old man was booked into the Cowlitz County Jail in Washington on charges of first-degree murder and first-degree robbery on July 7 after he turned himself in and confessed to a 1986 murder.
Russell Haines, the victim of the 32-year-old cold case, was murdered in his room at the Oregon Way Hotel on March 13, 1986. His cause of death was determined to be asphyxia by strangulation. There were no known witnesses, and no suspects had been named in the investigation that followed, police said.
Court documents show that Adams lived with his girlfriend at the time of the murder. He had just had an argument with his girlfriend about money problems. During the assault and robbery, Adams had put Haines in a choke hold and robbed him of $400 after Haines fell unconscious to the floor. When Haines started to revive from the attack, Adams suffocated him to death with a towel or a shirt.
Haines was 53-year-old when he was killed. He was disabled and walked on a prosthesis. Police said that Adams targeted Haines because he knew the victim carried large amounts of cash regularly. Adams has denied knowledge of Haines’s disability before the assault and murder.
Cowlitz Superior Court Judge Michael Evans found probable cause to hold Adams on July 9. The prosecutor requested that Adams be held without bail. The judge also set a hearing about his bail for 9:00 a.m. July 12.
It’s unclear if the police got in touch with Adams between his two confessions.
