HILLSBORO, Ore. (KOIN) — When Aimie Zdrantan was killed in August 2014, her father said he knew “that justice will be served.”
Wednesday, the 24-year-old woman’s ex-boyfriend admitted he killed her in her apartment while he was on a day pass from a Hillsboro minimum security facility.
Eric Christopher Petersen will spend the rest of his life in prison after pleading guilty in a Washington County court. A grand jury previously indicted Peterson with 7 counts of aggravated murder and one count each of first-degree sodomy, first-degree sexual abuse and first-degree burglary.
Records show Petersen violated a restraining order Zdrantan sought, and days before the killing a judge revoked his probation on a weapons charge. At the time of the killing, he was serving 60 days in a minimum-security transitional facility in Hillsboro and had a day pass to go to a job search service.
Aimie Zdrantan’s picture sat prominently in court while Eric Petersen was sentenced to life in prison.
Her dad, Steve Zdrantan, is still haunted by the fact Petersen was let out of the county corrections center under a job search pass the day Aimie was killed.
“It was a little uncomfortable rehashing the details of that day,” Steve Zdrantan said. “If they have any kind of violent crime, they should not be trusted to go out in public.”
In court, senior deputy District Attorney Bracken McKey pleaded the philosophy within the county needs to change in order to protect victims from potential violent offenders that get out on a pass.
Passes are given out too freely for things like work, education, treatment, church, running errands, going to Fred Meyer, even social passes to hang out with friends, he said.
“There they are eligible for passes for virtually anything they want to do,” McKey said.
He said the changes should start within the county’s probation department.
KOIN 6 News found a 1998 letter from Judge Alan Bonebrake calling for a crackdown on passes. He cited a case in which a woman was raped by a man who was on “a pass from the community corrections center.”
McKey said he’s not sure why the rules are so lax.
“You would have to ask people that have decided that is the best way to run a system,” he told KOIN 6 News. “I think it is a broken philosophy that puts unconditional trust in inmates.”
Community Corrections Department Assistant Director Joe Simich was not available to speak with KOIN 6 News on camera, but said in an email changes were made since the Zdrantan case in 2014.
Those changes include increasing the time before residents in orientation can get a pass, reducing passes to 12 hours and monitoring domestic violence and sex offenders with GPS, Simich said.
Steve Zdrantan said that’s not enought.
The problem is,” he said. “you’re still not guaranteeing the safety of the public.”
Click to view slideshow.Filed under: Crime, Top Video, Washington County
