The curtain finally closed on a grisly chapter of violence and drug warfare in Gresham, with the individuals involved in the 2021 murder of Andrew Sherrell pleading guilty to their roles in a plot that led to his execution by gunshot. The investigation, serving as a grim testament to the dangers underpinning the drug trade, involved multiple agencies and spanned several months. On the evening of September 24, 2021, Sherrell, a 34-year-old Bend, Oregon, resident and low-level drug dealer, was found dead, a single gunshot signaling a brutal end after being lured into a trap over an unsettled narcotics debt.
As reported by the Gresham Police, the East County Major Crimes Team, in a collaborative effort with Central Oregon law enforcement entities which included the Bend Police Department, Redmond Police Department, and Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office, pieced together the chilling sequence of events that inadvertently became Sherrell's last; Sherrell, unaware of the nefarious plan set in motion, was seduced into a parking lot by Kassandra Kitchens, who presented an offer for discount fentanyl, instead, Sherrell was met by the hands of his murderers who bound him with zip-ties and later ended his life in the desolation of Gresham's industrial area.
Five individuals were implicated in this orchestrated crime, with Cesar Estrada Nava identified as the orchestrator owing to a weighty drug debt of his own. Estrada Nava, along with Kitchens, D’Sean Baker, CJ Wobbe, and Andrew Bushnell, participated in a scheme that echoes the ruthlessness inherent in the drug world – where human life can be measured against debts and disloyalties. After pursuing a tortuous path of evidence, including interviews and analysis of thousands of pages of discovery, the case drew to a close with the defendants reaching plea agreements this month, as announced by the Multnomah County District Attorney's Office and Senior Deputy District Attorney Kelley Rhoades, Estrada Nava and Baker received 20-year sentences, Kitchens 115 months, Bushnell 100 months, and Wobbe 90 months behind bars.
Throughout the investigation and the ensuing judicial process, cooperation among local and federal law enforcement was paramount in disentangling the complex web surrounding Sherrell's murder and bringing the perpetrators to justice. The Gresham Police Department extended its gratitude to all agencies and units involved, including the Portland Police Bureau and the FBI, for their instrumental roles in resolving the case.
