Plea, Arrest In Bainbridge Killings

PORT ORCHARD - A 26-year-old man originally charged in the 1989 shotgun slayings of three young people on Bainbridge Island was arrested again last night after a second man pleaded guilty in two of the deaths.

Robert Welsh was arrested in Moscow, Idaho, on a warrant alleging three counts of first-degree murder, Kitsap County Sheriff Pat Jones said.

Moscow police said Welsh was taken into custody without incident at the grocery store where he works.

He was being held in the Latah County Jail pending extradition. Bail was set at $500,000.

Welsh, who previously lived in Silverdale, was originally charged in the case along with Douglas John Stanfield. But the charges against Welsh were dismissed in January after Stanfield withdrew his initial confession.

Stanfield pleaded guilty yesterday to first-degree murder in the death of JayDee Phillips, 23, and second-degree murder in the death of Ty McCollough, 18.

He originally was charged with first-degree murder in those deaths and in the death of Ann Rice, 19. The Rice charge was dismissed as part of a plea agreement in which Stanfield promised to testify in any future trials.

The three youths were shot to death in March 1989 as they sat in McCollough's pickup truck in a remote area of southern Bainbridge Island.

One other suspect, a Snohomish County man, remains at large and eventually could be tried, said Warren Sharpe, chief trial deputy for the Kitsap County prosecutor.

The prosecution has agreed to recommend a term of 28 years and four months at a sentencing hearing for Stanfield Nov. 1, Sharpe said.

But Kitsap Superior Court Judge James Maddock reminded Stanfield yesterday that Maddock is not bound by the plea-bargain recommendation. The standard range for the crimes is 24 to 34 years in prison.

Maddock sealed some of the prosecution's information in the case.

Sharpe declined to say what motive prosecutors believe led to the slayings.

Charges were filed against Stanfield after he contacted investigators last November. At the time, he was being held in the Snohomish County Jail in Everett on unrelated charges.

He later said he invented his story about the crime because he was bored in jail and thought he might be paid for information.

-- Times staff reporter Keith Ervin contributed to this report.