A Portland man who gunned down his friend and his friend’s girlfriend inside an Old Town apartment two years ago said his escalating meth use conjured an imaginary force that compelled him to pull the trigger.
Michael S. VanDomelen was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years under the terms of the plea deal approved Monday by a Multnomah County Circuit Court judge.
VanDomelen, now 47, pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder.
He fatally shot Daniel C. Davis, 47, and Ashlie Walker, 37, inside his single room in the Biltmore Hotel about 6:30 a.m. on Oct. 24, 2021.
“Daniel and Ashley were my friends. I had no ill will against them. I know that doesn’t make sense,” VanDomelen said during the hearing held a day shy of the two-year anniversary of the killing. “Something broke inside of me. I didn’t know the severity of my psychosis.”
Walker’s family sobbed in the courtroom gallery as VanDomelen turned and apologized to them. He acknowledged his words meant little to them, but said he hoped he could help others avoid his same mistake while serving a life sentence.
Speaking earlier, Walker’s relatives said they didn’t want to see VanDomelen released under any circumstances.
Her older sister, Melissa White, recalled teaching Walker to sew; in exchange, Walker taught her to drive on the back roads of their childhood small town.
“We used to sing together all the time and now I can’t even listen to the radio,” White said. “The loss of her has cast a shadow over the entire city.”
A montage of Walker’s life created by the family showed her as a laughing child in grainy home videos, smiling on her wedding day and dressing up in elaborate costumes for comic conventions as an adult.
Her mother, Julie Diaz, said Walker’s two boys, now 16 and 9, had struggled with the loss of their mother, even as their father, a veteran who lost his leg in Afghanistan, did his best to care for them.
“He just loves them and he’s doing a great job, but they need their mama,” she said. “They miss her terribly.”
