OR- Sex offender's mom thinks he's guilty, wants to stab him

BREAKING NEWS

2-26-2009 Oregon:

Darrin Eugene Sanford told his mother in a phone call Wednesday morning that he did not kill 13-year-old Alycia Nipp and was forced to confess, said his mother, Shirley Newman.

But Newman told Sanford, who is expected to face aggravated murder charges, that she did not believe him. The phone went dead after that, Newman said.

The phone call was the first conversation between Newman and her son since his arrest Monday for allegedly stabbing Nipp while trying to rape her. The seventh-grader was taking a shortcut through a field near the abandoned house where Sanford, a homeless sex offender, had been living.

Prosecutors expect to file charges including aggravated murder against Sanford today, said John Fairgrieve, senior deputy prosecuting attorney for Clark County. A probable cause affidavit said Sanford confessed to trying to have sex with Nipp and then stabbing her with an unknown object after she laughed at him.

Sanford's attorney, Mike Foister, did not return a message for comment.

But Clark County sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Scott Schanaker said Sanford's confession was not forced. "He gave his testimony freely and of his own volition," said Schanaker.

Newman said despite her son's claim, she did not believe him.

She said police searched her home, which is less than a mile from where Nipp was killed, and took several of his possessions, including a silver dagger, stained blue jeans and a stained brown sweatshirt.

"I want to take that knife and stab him," she said. "I want him to feel the pain he put on that girl."

Sanford, the youngest of her four children, visited her every day, she said. He would often shower and eat at her house. But they both preferred for him to not live in her home, and he had been staying in an abandoned house that borders the field where Nipp was killed.

On Saturday, Sanford did not come to her home until about 7:30 p.m., she said. He took a shower, stayed a few hours and left.

Newman said her sympathy is with Nipp's mother, not with her son.

"I wish I could give her daughter back, but I know I can't," Newman said. "He's got to pay for what he's done."

She said she plans to visit him only once and will leave him with a picture of herself.

"I will not see him again," she said.

To read how Clark County supervised Darrin Sanford, click here. ..News Source.. by Helen Jung, The Oregonian



Clark County kept tabs on sex offender, Washington says

by Michelle Roberts, The Oregonian

A Washington Department of Corrections official has done a preliminary review and says that Clark County probation officials weren't obligated to notify a Hazel Dell neighborhood that a dangerous sex offender was living in a nearby abandoned house.

The sex offender, Darrin Eugene Sanford, 30, has confessed to killing a 13-year-old girl, Alycia Nipp, on Saturday in an overgrown field near the abandoned house.

"I'm convinced Clark County sheriff's officers did everything they could have," said Stefani Meusborn-Marsh, the corrections field administrator for southwest Washington. "I've done enough of a review of the case to know that."

But if Sanford had been living across the bridge in Multnomah County, policy dictates that neighbors would have been notified, officials said.

"I don't want to speak badly of another agency," said Scott Taylor, director of the Multnomah County Department of Community Justice, "but in that particular case -- because of our policy in Multnomah County -- we would have notified neighbors."

The Clark County prosecutor plans to file formal charges, including aggravated murder, against Sanford today.