Ryan J. Parker pleaded guilty as charged to rendering criminal assistance in the first degree in the death of Susan Lundy this week in Thurston County Superior Court.
A judge sentenced Parker, 31, to one year in jail with credit for time served, and jail records show he was no longer in custody as of Friday.
Parker was accused of assisting Lundy's daughter, Amara Lundy, who recently pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter domestic violence in her mother Susan's death.
Susan Lundy was reported missing July 6, 2019. According to court documents, Amara Lundy confessed to police Aug. 12 that she strangled her mother with a section of cord she purchased.
In an interview with a detective, Lundy allegedly said she later dismembered her mother's body and that she and Parker got a shopping cart from a local grocery store and disposed of the body at dumpsters and trash cans around Olympia.
A prosecutor's statement of probable cause in Lundy's case described Parker as Lundy's boyfriend; however, a 60-page report on Lundy's life filed in court suggests their relationship was more complex than that label implies.
The 60-page mitigation report, filed Aug. 18, was compiled by Brenda Big Eagle, who owns Big Eagle Investigation/Mitigation and provides services to Thurston County Public Defense. It was based on multiple interviews with Lundy and people who know her along with school and medical records, according to the report.
It includes a photocopy of a letter from Dan Lundy, Amara Lundy's grandfather, addressed to one of her defense attorneys. In the letter, Lundy writes that the family does not believe the story Amara Lundy gave in her confession, and is convinced "her participation in the homicide was controlled by her manipulative boyfriend, made possible by her autistic vulnerability."
According to a prosecutor's statement of probable cause in Parker's case, Parker had been using the first name Jean, had no known address, was jobless, and had returned to Washington in early 2019 from California, where he had lived since 2017.
Lundy described tension between her mother and Parker that was "only verbal in nature," according to the statement, and that her mother had forbade Parker from being at her residence, but she had been sneaking him in so he could spend the night.
According to the statement, Lundy didn't initially or readily talk about Parker's involvement in her mother's death, until she started using the word "we" when answering a detective's questions. When confronted, she admitted Parker had helped her after the fact, the document reads.
Parker denied knowing about or participating in Lundy's death, and said he didn't know what he and Lundy were disposing of were her mother's body or any human remains.
He was charged with rendering criminal assistance in the first degree and a judge set bail at $100,000. A lawyer entered a not guilty plea on Parker's behalf Sept. 5, 2019.
As part of her plea last month, Amara Lundy agreed to provide "complete and truthful information at all times" about the events surrounding her mother's death and the disposal of her body, to provide at least one "full and truthful" recorded interview to law enforcement and prosecutors about the killing, and provide information about her participation and the participation of any other person, including Parker.
The plea agreement also included that Lundy would testify truthfully if she were called to do so as a witness at Parker's trial or the trials of any other potential defendants.
But Parker pleaded guilty to the criminal assistance charge Tuesday, and court records show Thurston County Superior Court Judge James Dixon sentenced Parker to one year in jail, the high end of the standard sentencing range for someone with his criminal history.
While court records show Parker had a criminal history as a juvenile, they also show no known felony convictions influenced his sentencing range.
Dixon also ordered Parker obtain a psychological evaluation and comply with any recommended follow-up treatment, pay $600 in fees, not own or use a firearm unless his right to do so is restored in court, and have no contact with Amara Lundy and one other individual, who Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Megan Winder told The Olympian is a juvenile.
Parker's name did not appear on the Thurston County jail roster as of Friday, and Lt. Ray Brady told The Olympian records show he was released Sept. 8, the day he was sentenced.
Amara Lundy's sentencing is scheduled to take place Sept. 28, but court dates are subject to change.
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