Bilderback gets maximum

Superior Court Judge David Frazier Friday sentenced Bobby Bilderback to 68 months in prison, the maximum time prescribed on the state’s range, for the drug overdose death of Donavin Stapert, 17, last March 7 at Bilderback’s residence in Malden. The judge put aside a recommendation for 59.5 months and a last-minute suggestion for a drug offender’s sentencing alternative (DOSA).

Bilderback, 44, pleaded guilty to two charges last Monday just before the start of a week-long jury trial. He was convicted of controlled substance homicide and unlawful disposal of human remains. State sentencing range on the drug conviction was 51 to 68 months, and as part of the plea bargain agreement, Prosecutor Denis Tracy Friday recommended a 59.5 month term, halfway point in the range.

Bilderback’s sentence range included a factor for a Chelan County conviction for murder.

In announcing his sentencing decision Friday, Judge Frazier pointed out the Stapert boy might have survived if Bilderback had taken a different course of action after the youth began to show symptoms of a drug overdose.

In his description of the crime earlier, Tracy described how Stapert began to convulse after ingesting methamphetamine. He said Bilderback had Stapert placed him in an outdoor hot tub and then later placed in a master bedroom where the boy died.

The death was the night of March 6-7.

The boy was later placed in a safe and transported in the early morning hours two days later to a burial site in the Chatteroy area north of Spokane.

Defense Attorney Frank Cikutovich Friday said he had forwarded the drug offenders alternative sentence option to the court after Bilderback had brought it up last week after his pleas. Cikutovich, who joined Tracy in recommending the 59.5 months, said the defense wanted the court to know the DOSA alternative was available.

A DOSA sentence halves the normal jail time for a conviction and requires strict adherence to treatment requirements.

Judge Frazier said he lacked any professional report on Bilderback’s drug addiction. He also said he doubted Bilderback would be amenable to drug treatment because he was back in court on a homicide charge three years after he was released on the Chelan County murder conviction.

Friday’s sentencing included tearful statements by Donavin Stapert’s father, Jason Stapert, and Donavin’s mother who testified after being called on the telephone at her residence in Oregon.

Donavin Stapert had moved last year from Oregon to Malden to reside with his father. He was not registered to attend school.

His disappearance, first reported by a relative in Spokane, was first listed as a missing person. Deputies said their initial investigation included allegations that Donavin had left Malden after stealing money and/or drugs from the Bilderback residence. The missing person report was dropped after the sheriff’s office received a tip from an unnamed informant who told deputies he had been at the Bilderback house in Malden at the time the youth’s body was inside the safe.

Tracy said the Staperts had only known Bilderback a short time before Donavin Stapert’s death. He said they had initially gone to the Bilderback residence on SW Birch Street in Malden because Jason Stapert had been asked to clean an out building in preparation for a marijuana grow.