Sebastian Shaw was convicted of three murders in the Portland, Oregon area. A jury in Multnomah County found him guilty of the aggravated murder of Jay Rickbeil, who died in July 1991. Earlier, in February 2000, he had pleaded guilty to the aggravated murders of Donna Ferguson and Todd Rudiger, who died in 1992. He entered prison in 2000 and remained there for the rest of his life. He died at Oregon State Penitentiary in October 2021, at the age of 53.
Jay Rickbeil was 40 when he died in July 1991. Prosecutors said Shaw had chosen him at random.
Donna Ferguson was 18 and Todd Rudiger was 29 when they died in 1992. They died together in the Portland area.
After the 2006 verdict a victim's mother, from Gresham, criticized it. "He got away with it. It's all an act," she said.
The 1991 case stayed unsolved for years, with no suspect identified. In February 1998 Shaw was arrested in connection with a 1995 offense against a woman who survived, and DNA evidence linked him to the 1992 deaths of Ferguson and Rudiger.
In February 2000 Shaw pleaded guilty in Multnomah County to two counts of aggravated murder, for Ferguson and Rudiger, and to one count of attempted aggravated murder, for the 1995 offense. The court imposed two concurrent sentences of life without parole for the aggravated murders and a consecutive sentence of 240 months for the attempted aggravated murder. His record also includes a rape conviction in connection with the 1995 offense. He entered the custody of the Oregon Department of Corrections on February 22, 2000, with no release date.
After the pleas, DNA evidence linked Shaw to Rickbeil's death. On March 9, 2001, the state indicted him on one count of aggravated murder under Oregon law.
The case did not reach a jury quickly. Before trial, the prosecution asked to present evidence of Shaw's other crimes, and the trial court allowed it in general. The court barred one witness, a woman who had survived a separate offense, from testifying. Prosecutors said they could not go forward without her. On April 21, 2004, when the state declined to proceed, the court dismissed the indictment. Shaw then moved for dismissal with prejudice and a judgment of acquittal, and at a hearing the next day the court granted it, citing the state's "inexcusable neglect in its handling of this prosecution."
The state appealed. On June 16, 2005, the Oregon Supreme Court, sitting en banc, decided State v. Shaw in the state's favor. It held that the state was entitled to appeal, reversed the dismissal and the judgment of acquittal, and found that the trial court had abused its discretion in excluding the witness's testimony. The court dismissed most of Shaw's cross-appeal, rejected his challenge to the relevance of the other-crimes evidence, and sent the case back for trial.
A Multnomah County jury convicted Shaw of the aggravated murder of Jay Rickbeil. The jury then considered the death penalty. After about six hours of deliberation it voted 9 to 3 for death. Because a death sentence required a unanimous vote, Shaw was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of release. That was his third life sentence.
While in prison, Shaw told law enforcement that he had killed 10 to 12 other people. Prosecutors offered a plea deal under which he would receive a life sentence in exchange for details of all the killings. Shaw wanted a promise that he would never face the death penalty in any future case, and prosecutors refused. He gave no details, and no further convictions followed.
In May 1994 a 14-year-old girl was killed in Castro Valley, California. The case has remained one of the Bay Area's best-known unsolved killings. Alameda County investigators named Shaw the primary suspect, and he lived and worked in the area at the time. He was never arrested or charged in the girl's death, and no conviction exists.
The Oregon Department of Corrections announced that Shaw died in its custody on October 3, 2021, at Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem, after 21 years in prison. The state medical examiner was to determine the cause of death.
Proven by his own guilty pleas, February 2000: the aggravated murders of Donna Ferguson and Todd Rudiger and one count of attempted aggravated murder. Proven by jury verdict, 2006: the aggravated murder of Jay Rickbeil.
Suspected only: the 1994 killing in Castro Valley. Claimed only: the 10 to 12 other killings. Neither was charged, and neither is a conviction.
July 1991: Jay Rickbeil, 40, dies in the Portland area.
1992: Donna Ferguson, 18, and Todd Rudiger, 29, die in the Portland area.
May 1994: a 14-year-old girl is killed in Castro Valley, California; Shaw is later named the primary suspect but is never charged.
February 1998: Shaw is arrested.
February 2000: he pleads guilty to two counts of aggravated murder and one count of attempted aggravated murder.
February 22, 2000: he enters prison.
March 9, 2001: indicted for the aggravated murder of Jay Rickbeil.
April 2004: the trial court dismisses the indictment and enters a judgment of acquittal.
June 16, 2005: the Oregon Supreme Court reverses and sends the case back for trial.
2006: a Multnomah County jury convicts him of the aggravated murder of Jay Rickbeil, votes 9 to 3 for death, and he is sentenced to life without possibility of release.
October 3, 2021: he dies at Oregon State Penitentiary.