Oregon man sentenced for killing 4 people, kidnapping woman in spree that ended in Wisconsin

A Coos County man whose violent rampage left his father and three other people dead in 2021 was sentenced Monday to the Oregon State Hospital after a judge found him guilty except for insanity.

The ruling brings to a close the complex and long-running case of Oen Nicholson who was accused of killing his 83-year-old father, Charles Nicholson, a retired couple, Anthony and Linda Oyster, and a marijuana store employee, Jennifer Davison.

In the years since the killings, Nicholson, 34, has been in and out of the state psychiatric hospital. He sought to represent himself and at one point the court ordered the state hospital staff to medicate Nicholson against his will to treat his schizophrenia to see if he could become well enough to stand trial.

On Monday afternoon, two Coos County sheriff’s deputies escorted Nicholson into Circuit Judge Martin Stone’s courtroom at the county courthouse in downtown Coquille.

He had what is known as a stipulated facts trial, where Nicholson’s lawyers and the Coos County District Attorney’s Office reached an agreement on the broad outlines of the harrowing day nearly four years ago.

He also was sentenced in the kidnapping of Laura Johnson, a clerk at a Springfield sporting goods store.

Nicholson encountered Johnson while she was on a lunch break in the store parking lot on June 18, 2021, and ordered her at gunpoint to drive north.

Nearly two days later, in the early morning hours of June 20, the pair pulled into Milwaukee, Wisconsin, after authorities say Johnson talked Nicholson into turning himself into police.

Johnson attended Monday’s hearing; she declined to address the court.

Physicians for the state and the defense concluded that Nicholson suffers from schizophrenia and paranoid delusions, leading prosecutors to agree to sending Nicholson to the state hospital under the jurisdiction of the Oregon Psychiatric Security Review Board.

He will remain under the board’s jurisdiction for the rest of his life. The board will oversee his care and possible release if he is successfully treated.

During the hearing, Stone engaged in a back-and-forth with Nicholson, ensuring he understood the agreement.

Nicholson asked the judge: “From your perspective, what are the consequences of that.”

Stone told him: “Well, the consequences, at least from my perspective, is you’ll be under jurisdiction (of the psychiatric board) for the remainder of your life.”

Nicholson replied: “OK, yes, I understand.”

According to court filings, Nicholson believed the federal government or its agents were trying to kill him on the day he fatally stabbed his father, a retired dentist, 18 times with a hunting knife.

The two lived in a travel trailer at the Mill Park Casino RV Park in North Bend.

In court records filed this week by Paul Frasier, the retired Coos County district attorney who handled the prosecution, Nicholson “decided he needed to kill his father,” believing his father was a federal agent.

“Because of his delusional belief system, the defendant does not believe his father is dead and believes the federal government is hiding him in the witness protection program,” Frasier wrote.

Nicholson then targeted the Oysters, a retired couple who visited Coos County in the summer, because he thought that they too were FBI agents “watching him,” according to Frasier.

He climbed into his father’s truck and aimed it at the couple as they walked on a road through the RV park, the court filing states.

“He then intentionally drove the truck into Mr. and Mrs. Oyster, causing them severe traumatic injuries,” according to Frasier.

Anthony Oyster, 74, died at the scene; his wife, Linda, 73, died three weeks later at a hospital.

Nicholson then headed to Big 5 Sporting Goods store at a local mall to buy ammunition for his father’s handgun. On the way, he drove by a marijuana store, Herbal Choices, and spotted a store employee he recognized, Jennifer Davison, 47, talking with a customer.

Believing that she also “was an agent of the federal government,” he pulled into the parking lot and stepped out of the truck, armed with the handgun, Frasier wrote.

He fired, striking Davidson once, the court filing states. Davidson “ducked back into the store” and Nicholson pursued her, standing in the doorway and firing at her as she lay on the ground, killing her, according to the account in the court filing.

Nicholson, the filing states, “believes that he shot Ms. Davidson with ‘powder’ ammunition and that Ms. Davidson is still alive,” Frasier wrote.

Nicholson drove north on U.S. 101, then turned east on Oregon 126. Near Vida, he saw a police car headed in the opposite direction. Worried he had been caught, he turned off the highway and became stuck, according to the state’s court filing.

He ditched the truck and hitchhiked to the Gateway Mall in Springfield, the filing states.

That’s where he found Johnson sitting in her car on her lunch break.

Authorities say he ordered her to drive him north on Interstate 5.

The two drove through the night, into the next day and the following night, finally arriving more than 2,000 miles away in Wisconsin, where Nicholson turned himself in to Milwaukee police. Johnson was physically unharmed.

The Oysters’ children told the judge of their searing loss.

Mark Oyster and Earle Holt, the Oysters’ sons, said their parents had looked forward to a fulfilling retirement of adventure and togetherness.

“Dad and Mom had worked their whole lives with their dream of traveling the United States, enjoying each other’s company in retirement and exploring our wonderful country and when they went out for a walk on this fateful morning, that dream was taken from them,” they wrote in a statement that Frasier read aloud.

They spoke of the impact of the couple’s absence on their grandchildren.

“They will not exchange Instagram pictures or receive any emails or texts from them,” he said. “They will not receive the most cherished phone calls sharing their latest experiences. They will not be able to receive that wisdom that only grandparents can share. They are gone forever out of our lives.”

Nicholson, wearing gray jail scrubs and belly chains, did not speak.

At the close of the hearing, Stone ordered Nicholson to be taken from jail to the Oregon State Hospital.

— Noelle Crombie is an enterprise reporter with a focus on criminal justice. Reach her at 503-276-7184; ncrombie@oregonian.com