By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
A Waldport man already in jail on charges of burglarizing the apartment where Crestview Golf Course owner Mark Campbell was stabbed to death in December was indicted Thursday for his murder.
Jack E. Sigler, 52, who was living in a garage just north of the golf course, was indicted on one count of second-degree murder by a Lincoln County grand jury.
Deputies arrested Sigler on Dec. 9, three days after Campbell was stabbed to death as he went to check on an apparent break-in at an adjacent apartment overlooking the golf course. Sigler has since been in the Lincoln County Jail on $450,000 bond.
In statements to deputies prior to his arrest, Sigler admitted burglarizing the apartment but having nothing to do with Campbell’s killing.
Campbell, 66, co-owner of the golf course and a member of the Waldport City Council for 14 years, was well known, well liked and active in numerous community groups. His death sent shockwaves through the city.
The indictment likely hinged on DNA and other forensic evidence collected by Oregon State Police crime lab which swept through the apartment where the killing took place and the garage where Sigler was living, law enforcement sources told YachatsNews.
In a news release announcing the indictment Thursday, the sheriff’s office said the state crime lab completed analysis of evidence Wednesday and a grand jury hearing was scheduled Thursday. The grand jury returned with an indictment for second-degree murder, and re-indicted Sigler on four counts of first-degree burglary and one count of first-degree theft.
In the news release Thursday, the sheriff’s office said Campbell died of “severe trauma received from multiple stab wounds.”
Second-degree murder, while sounding like a less severe charge, is now the standard charge for killings other than of police officers or children now that Oregon has a moratorium on the death penalty. If convicted, Sigler could be sentenced to life in prison.
Court records lays out burglaries
In court documents to support the burglary indictment, deputies said that Sigler told them he three times burglarized the apartment of Ron Remy, who lived two doors away from Mark and Christine Campbell in their tri-plex overlooking the practice green at Crestview. The thefts included samurai swords, gold coins and coin collections, jewelry, a computer, and other items.
Campbell was stabbed to death about 3:35 a.m. Dec. 6 when he went to investigate a break-in at Remy’s apartment. The Campbells were Remy’s landlord. Remy, a former golf teacher and avid collector, had died two weeks earlier of cancer.
Acting on a tip the day Campbell was killed, Deputy Dalynn Shinholster and Oregon State Police Trooper Scott Severson went to a house on South Crestline Drive where Sigler was living in the garage. That’s where Sigler showed them the samurai swords and admitted taking them from Remy’s apartment, according to court documents.
Sigler later turned over many more items he said he took from Remy’s apartment to sheriff’s Detective Abby Dorsey, the lead investigator in the case.
Dorsey said that Remy’s apartment had been burglarized sometime between Remy’s death Nov. 24 and Dec. 1, when Campbell first discovered the swords were missing.
The probable cause affidavit filed in Lincoln County Circuit Court laid out other portions of the investigation into Sigler’s arrest and Campbell’s death.
Shinholster said that Campbell’s ex-wife, Patricia Campbell, showed Dorsey a series of Facebook messages from Sigler to her on Dec. 6 admitting to burglarizing Remy’s apartment but denying he had anything to do with Mark Campbell’s death.
The affidavit stated: “Sorry … I messed up, but I didn’t kill marc.” “I wouldn’t ever hurt anybody. A long day though, im home”, “Im not in jail”, “I didn’t do it.”
Sigler told Patricia Campbell via message that he had burglarized the apartment a few days earlier and took the samurai swords. Sigler told Campbell that he went alone the two nights he broke into the apartment, including twice in one night.
In her affidavit, Deputy Shinholster said: “I observed Patricia ask Jack what he meant by both nights and asked if Jack was there Sunday. I observed Jack replied “Noooo … not Sunday night!! Or Saturday or Friday”, “Wed and Thursday I think …” “those nights I went” and later “I left the place neat. I didn’t want anybody to notice for a while.”
Sigler sent text messages Dec. 4, Dec. 5 and Dec. 6 to a woman asking her to go to Portland with to pawn the items from Remy’s apartment.
But in the indictment issued Thursday, the grand jury accused Sigler of burglarizing the apartment on Dec. 1, Dec. 2, Dec. 4 and then returning Dec. 6, when Campbell was killed.
On Monday, during a court hearing to schedule Sigler’s trial date on the burglary charges, his defense attorney Kristina Kayl of Newport said she was having trouble getting evidence from the district attorney’s office because of its investigation of another crime, according to the Newport News-Times. District Attorney Lanee Danforth later told the newspaper that “it hasn’t been provided in order to protect the integrity of the homicide investigation.”
