A Multnomah County jury convicted 32-year-old Portland resident Deming R. Oakleaf of second-degree murder Thursday in the shooting death of 38-year-old Roman Shulishov, closing out a case that began with a killing on a quiet Fairview street in February 2025. Shulishov was shot on the street near his home after walking over to speak with someone inside a car parked nearby.
According to the Multnomah County District Attorney's Office, Oakleaf was convicted on Oct. 8, 2026, of second-degree murder in Shulishov's killing. He had been arrested four days after the shooting, and the DA's office says Senior Deputy District Attorney Brian Davidson prosecuted the case, with lead investigative work handled by Multnomah County Sheriff's Office Detective Chris Stephens and the East County Major Crimes Team, a unit that draws detectives from MCSO, Gresham Police, Port of Portland Police, and Oregon State Police.
Surveillance footage from homes in the area showed Shulishov unloading groceries with his teenage son on Feb. 23, 2025, before he walked over to a gray sedan with no license plates to speak with someone inside, according to KGW. Oakleaf fired multiple .22-caliber rounds from inside the vehicle before fleeing the scene, and investigators later recovered a loaded .22 LR Ruger pistol inside the car's center console. Shulishov was killed after returning from what had been a routine grocery errand with his son.
How Detectives Tracked Down the Suspect
The suspect car had no license plates at the time of the shooting, but that didn't stop investigators. Detectives with the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office used surveillance footage from a nearby Walmart store to track the vehicle and arrested Oakleaf on Feb. 27, 2025, the same station reports. Court records and statements from the DA's office reveal no clear motive for the brief conversation that preceded the shooting, leaving an open question about what triggered the encounter between Oakleaf and Shulishov.
KPTV also reported on the jury's guilty verdict, confirming that the 32-year-old was found guilty of shooting and killing Shulishov. Oakleaf is scheduled to be sentenced in Multnomah County Circuit Court on Oct. 29, per The Outlook.
A Pattern of Violence in a Small East County City
Fairview lies north of Gresham and west of Troutdale, according to the City of Fairview. The small city relies on Multnomah County Sheriff's deputies for major criminal investigations, a reflection of just how much regional law enforcement infrastructure smaller East County communities depend on when violence strikes.
Fairview's violent crime rate sits at roughly 7.58 per 1,000 residents, or about a 1 in 132 risk of being a victim of violent crime, according to Hoodline, citing NeighborhoodScout's analysis of FBI crime data. A suspicious death was reported near NE 227th Avenue on Oct. 1.
Formal death investigations in Oregon cover deaths under suspicious, violent, or unknown circumstances and determine the classification of the death. Oakleaf's conviction brings a measure of legal resolution to a case that shook the quiet East Multnomah County community nearly two years ago, even as the question of what led to that brief roadside conversation remains unanswered.
