From Wednesday's opinion in State v. Howard, by Judge Robyn Aoyagi:
In March 2019, N died of an accidental drug overdose in the bedroom of her apartment. At the time of her death, N was dating defendant, and he was living in the apartment. Another woman, S, was also staying there temporarily. Defendant became sexually involved with S before N's death.
One morning, defendant discovered that N had died. Her body was on the bedroom floor between the bed and the wall. There is no contention that defendant played any role in N's death or that he moved her body.
Defendant concealed N's body, however, to delay the discovery of her death. He piled a large quantity of clothing on top of and around the body and placed four empty storage totes upside down on top of the clothing. He then rotated the bed's queensized mattress 90 degrees relative to the box spring, so that one end was lying atop the storage totes and somewhat raised.
When N's family was unable to reach her for two days, a group of relatives and friends came to the apartment to confront defendant as to N's whereabouts. That led to the police searching the apartment and finding N's body. The police had to move the mattress, the storage totes, and the clothing to find N's body.
During a police interview, defendant admitted that he found N dead and concealed her body. He also admitted to having sex with S on the bed after N's death. Defendant was charged with two counts of second-degree abuse of corpse, ORS 166.085 ….
