New slaying bolsters appeal

SALEM, Ore. — Philip Cannon was already serving a life sentence in prison for the murder of three people — when a fourth person turned up dead under similar circumstances on the same rural Polk County property.

Cannon had worked as a handyman at the property on the day of the murders, but maintained his innocence in court.

The owner of the land, Bimla Boyd, testified as a key witness against Cannon at the trial in 2000. Now, she is in jail as a suspect in the killing that took place after Cannon was already locked up.

Boyd was also the person who reported the original three slayings in 1998.

Cannon already had an appeal pending on procedural grounds. He says he hopes the arrest will help his case. Prosecutors say they still believe Cannon is guilty of the original triple homicide.

"It's huge," Cannon said in an interview with the Statesman Journal at the Oregon State Penitentiary. "I mean, gee, she was basically the main witness against me. I think it probably would raise questions about her credibility."

Boyd, 46, was arrested a week ago in the shooting death of Robert Daniel Spencer, 54, the caretaker at her rural property, about 10 miles west of Salem. Spencer died from a single gunshot wound to the throat in Boyd's home. Boyd has not entered a plea to a charge of murder.

Spencer was the latest person to turn up dead on the property. Charles Boyd, 44, died at his ex-wife's five-bedroom home Feb. 12.

The exact cause of death was not determined, but a medical examiner concluded that he probably died from a combination of prescription drugs and health complications. Since Bimla Boyd's arrest last week, her oldest son, James, of Keizer, has called for reopening the investigation into the death of his stepfather.

In all, five people have turned up dead at Bimla Boyd's 30-acre hillside property during the past four years. Jason Roger Kinser, 26, Suzan Renee Osborne, 26, and Celesta Joy Graves, 24, were found shot to death Nov. 23, 1998, at a trailer owned by Boyd. Kinser and Osborne took care of her property in exchange for free rent.

The afternoon of the triple homicide, Boyd alerted police after allegedly seeing smoke from the trailer and, after going inside, finding Kinser's body in the kitchen. She called 911 at 3:57 p.m.

Shortly thereafter, police discovered the bodies of Osborne and Graves under the trailer. No murder weapon was found, and there were no eyewitnesses to the killings. District Attorney John Fisher never produced a motive, but he theorized that the slayings resulted from a drug deal gone awry.

Key evidence presented during the trial included shell casings found at the crime scene. The prosecuting attorney told the jury they matched those found by police in Cannon's garage.

Defense attorneys presented conflicting information from their own ballistics expert.

After weeks of testimony, a jury took three hours to convict.

Cannon said Boyd's testimony probably played a big part in his conviction. "She was monumental, crucial, pivotal," he said. "She established a timeline on when I was allegedly there. This whole case hinges on the timeline.

As Cannon tells it, he was at the trailer that day, but not when the killings occurred. Boyd's murder arrest should cast doubt on the testimony she gave at his trial, Cannon said. But he stopped short of accusing her of culpability in the triple homicide. "I don't want to point fingers," he said. "That's been done to me."