Court document details killing of man near Ortega Highway

By: JOHN HALL - Staff Writer | Wednesday, January 4, 2006 10:40 PM PST ∞

A Washington state man has admitted to homicide investigators that he killed a man whose body was found near Ortega Highway, but says it was in self defense, according to a court document.

Kenneth Eugene Patrick, 58, was arrested Dec. 14 on suspicion of murder in connection with the death of 38-year-old Robert Austin Bukey.

Patrick pleaded not guilty to the murder charge at Southwest Justice Center in French Valley on Tuesday.

Bukey's body, with a gunshot wound to the back of the head, was found March 23 off Killen Trail, about three miles from Ortega Highway, authorities said.

Several months before Bukey's body was found, he inherited a large amount of money after his grandmother died, authorities said. Patrick and his wife, who is Bukey's cousin, handled the trust account, according to the court document. The document is a written declaration by a Riverside County sheriff's investigator asking a judge to issue a warrant for Patrick's arrest.

Patrick had been a forensic technician with the Buena Park Police Department in Orange County, according to the court document.

When Riverside County sheriff's homicide investigators went to Fox Island in Pierce County, Washington, to interview Patrick last month, he initially denied being involved in Bukey's death.

But, he later recanted and gave two investigators a different account of what happened to Bukey, who lived in the San Fernando Valley.

Patrick told them that he and Bukey argued over Bukey's desire to spread his grandparents' ashes along Ortega Highway, according to the court document. Bukey, who was a passenger in the car Patrick was driving, pulled out a semiautomatic pistol and demanded that he drive somewhere to distribute the ashes, Patrick told investigators.

Patrick said he parked the car and he and Bukey walked into a secluded area. He again told Bukey he didn't want to spread the ashes there and the two began shoving each other, the court document states.

Bukey fell face down on the ground and, as he started to get up, Bukey put his hand in a jacket pocket where he had the gun, Patrick told investigators.

Patrick said he feared for his life so he pulled out a .22-caliber pistol and shot Bukey as he tried to get back up, investigators wrote.

He then took Bukey's cell phone and wallet "to make the shooting look like a robbery," the document states. Patrick told them he later disposed of the cell phone and wallet in a trash can and tossed the pistol off a Newport Beach pier.

A .22-caliber shell casing was found near Bukey's body, as was a BB pistol owned by Bukey, investigators said.

Bank records seized through a search warrant showed that more than $365,000 was deposited into the trust account that investigators believe was overseen by Patrick and his wife, according to court documents.

Through May 25, 2005, cash amounts and purchases totaling more than $125,000 were withdrawn, investigators say. Through April 25, 2005, numerous checks made payable to Patrick and his wife totaling more than $111,000 were written, the document states.

When interviewed by investigators, Patrick admitted using thousands of dollars from the trust fund for the benefit of him and his wife without the permission of Bukey or Bukey's mother, according to the document.

Contact staff writer John Hall at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2628, or jhall@californian.com.

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