Randolph Graham talks about shooting Randy Lester while on the witness stand Tuesday afternoon in Lewis County Superior Court. Graham was convicted of first-degree murder and other charges on Wednesday.
A jury found Randolph T. Graham guilty of all charges leveled against him Wednesday afternoon — including the first-degree murder of Randy Lester and the first-degree attempted murder of the victim’s 15-year-old son.
The courtroom was mostly full when the jury returned with their verdict — which they reached within the span of a few hours Wednesday afternoon. Muffled gasps of excitement were audible from the numerous friends and relatives of the Lester family who sat through a majority of the trial, which kicked off the Wednesday prior.
“Overwhelming relief … (I’m grateful) that justice was served,” said Rachel Lester, Randy Lester’s wife, following the verdict. “We’re just trying to figure out how to keep moving forward and just trying to figure out how to live life without my husband.”
Graham, 59, was accused of shooting and killing his neighbor, 44-year-old Randy Lester, and firing at the victim’s fleeing son on May 23. Authorities say he fired rounds from his truck and on foot at his neighbor while Lester played basketball with his son at the end of their driveway just off Meier Road in Winlock.
Besides murder and attempted murder, Graham was charged with drive-by shooting, manufacture of marijuana and possession of a controlled substance.
Prosecuting attorneys Will Halstead and Paul Masiello finished building their case against Graham Tuesday. They argued he killed his neighbor and tried to kill his teenage son over ongoing disputes between the neighbors. Graham’s legal counsel David Arcuri started his defense that same day.
Graham was the one and only defense witness to take the stand in his defense Tuesday. While telling a story that differed greatly from other testimony, he didn’t dispute that he shot and killed Randy Lester.
However, he claimed it was in self-defense.
Graham said that on May 23, he was planning on meeting his father to shoot guns recreationally. Before getting into his large, lifted Ford pickup truck to leave his house and meet his dad, he said he fired a round from his 9mm Smith & Wesson handgun to make sure his gun was working properly. This accounted for a lone gunshot neighbors in the area had heard before the volley of shots that killed Randy Lester.
Graham then headed down the driveway, he said, past the Lesters’ house. He saw Hunter Lester — Randy Lester’s son, 15 at the time — and Randy Lester walking toward the driveway. Graham claimed to see the outline of a handgun in the pocket of Randy Lester’s work pants. This made him leery, so in turn Graham said he removed his handgun from its case and put it on the truck’s center console.
Randy Lester got in front of his truck, Graham claimed, so he slammed on his brakes hard enough for him to lurch forward.
Randy Lester then put a cigarette out on Graham’s truck, Graham claimed, and then pulled out his pistol, gripping it with both hands. Graham said he brandished his own gun and fired three rounds out of his open passenger window before Randy Lester managed to fire once. The victim let out some sort of yelp, Graham said, and turned and ran. He claimed Hunter Lester had run away at some point when the shooting started.
As Randy Lester ran, Graham said, he tripped and fell onto his stomach. Graham said he got out of his truck and ran toward his neighbor, intent of taking away his gun. Randy Lester then started to roll over, Graham claimed, and fearful that he was going to try again to shoot, Graham fired — killing his neighbor.
Graham said he stood there for a solid minute, watching the body, before loading back up in his truck and returning home. From a vantage point on his property, he watched the Lesters’ driveway to see what would happen, he said. Less than a minute later, he claimed to see Rachel Lester get out of the house and approach the body.
He couldn’t see exactly what she did, he said, but she took something from the body and carried it off. Randy Lester’s hand — which had previously held the gun and was tucked under his body — was now empty and pulled from under his mass.
Graham returned to his house, he said, and downed between 40 and 60 morphine pills from an old prescription, intent on taking his own life.
When Arcuri asked if he ever intended to kill Randy Lester, Graham replied in the negative.
He was found later that night by the Lewis County Regional SWAT Team, called to the scene after the shooting, and hospitalized. A 911 call played twice for the jury over the course of the trial revealed that Graham called an ambulance for himself, and suggested they send another for his neighbor.
“I shot that f****** a******,” said Graham on the line with dispatch.
Halstead, during a cross-examination, challenged Graham on many points of his story. He asked Graham why he didn’t tell anyone the shooting was in self-defense in the hours that followed, including the 911 dispatcher or his father — who Graham called after the shooting, as well.
“Someone tried to kill you, and you didn’t even mention it to your own father?” Halstead said.
Graham stuck to his story.
Halstead, during his closing argument Wednesday, provided an overview of the state’s argument.
This included three areas of contention between the neighbors that prosecutors had brought up ad nauseam: Disagreements over the power bill for a shared well, a car and basketball hoop set up in a shared easement, and the shooting of Graham’s pet rabbits that were eating the Lesters’ garden. Different people are “set off” by different things, said Halstead. These three issues were what “set off” Graham, prompting him to act violently.
Halstead put a lot of emphasis on the shared electrical bill. Numerous testimonies previously revealed that a shed on the Lesters’ property fed into a meter for the shared well, essentially making Graham pay for electricity he wasn’t using. In his testimony, Graham minimized the issue, saying he had squared things away with the Lesters. Meanwhile, multiple deputies who stood guard over Graham in custody would say he voluntarily complained to them of an issue he had had with the public utility district and his neighbor.
Halstead also said there was no motive for Randy Lester to pull a gun on Graham, saying if the shooting unfolded the way Graham claimed, it would have required a conspiracy among the Lesters to cover up — including Rachel Lester hiding the gun and Hunter Lester lying about what happened.
Regarding the marijuana charges, Halstead said that while a doctor legally cleared Graham to grow and possess marijuana, he didn’t have necessary legal notice — a physical piece of paper — posted near the plants.
Halstead argued that Graham’s story was manufactured, and failed to correspond with evidence gathered at the scene.
Regarding the attempted murder charge, Halstead said bullets that hit the Lesters’ house during the volley of shots would only have gone in that direction if Graham were shooting at the fleeing Hunter Graham.
Arcuri, in his closing argument, said there was no proof that Graham was firing at Hunter Lester, arguing that the trajectory of the bullets and the path Hunter Lester ran didn’t add up — something Halstead would counter in a rebuttal.
Arcuri said testimony about Graham and Randy Lester’s disagreements had been one-sided throughout the trial — a purposeful attempt to demonize Graham and make him appear unhinged. He said the Lesters weren’t as blameless in the disputes as they were made to seem, and referenced the Lesters shooting Graham’s pet rabbits and the glitch with the electricity bill that was causing him to pay part of the Lesters’ electricity. Rachel Lester said in her testimony that the problem was reversed as soon as it was discovered, and her family offered to foot the bill for the remainder of the year.
Arcuri also criticized marijuana law, saying Graham had notification that he could legally grow pot, but he kept it in his house rather than with the plants. It was imprecise legal language on the law that led to the charges, he said.
“When you make a law that’s stupid … It’s hard to follow stupid,” Arcuri said.
Arcuri also said it was entirely likely that Rachel Lester could have taken a gun off her husband’s body. After learning a loved one was shot, said Arcuri, it’s natural to want to go to them. He argued that’s what Rachel Lester did, and could have taken the gun — which Halstead frequently called “imaginary.” In her testimony the week prior, Rachel Lester said she did not approach the body. They weren’t sure if Graham was still in the area, and if he still posed a threat, she said.
“There are no more … passionate, emotional cases than someone being killed by another person,” said Arcuri. “That’s why we have this system.”
He urged the jury to consider facts of the case, rather than emotion, when making their decision.
Graham will be sentenced 1 p.m. Sept. 4.
