A man who prosecutors say shoved an acquaintance off a towering cliff in Northeast Portland’s Rocky Butte Park -- then made off with his car -- was sentenced Friday to 18 years in prison.
Investigators say Avonte Terzayon Armstead, who was 19 at the time, killed 22-year-old Irvin Batalla on July 6, 2015. Batalla is believed to have driven Armstead and two other people to the park to smoke marijuana.
Prosecutors credited Det. Brad Clifton for painstakingly -- over hundreds of hours of investigation -- piecing together the mystery of how Batalla died. On the day Batalla died, Armstead drove himself and the two others to the Springfield area, where he crashed Batalla’s car and fled the scene with them.
Police found the group a short while later, but police hadn’t realized that Batalla’s car had been stolen or that Batalla was even missing, according to the prosecution.
The next day, children playing in Rocky Butte Park found Batalla’s body at the base of the cliff.
Police then realized the importance of the crash of Batalla’s car. Clifton began investigating, and found receipts in the car -- for a Chevron gas station and two Fred Meyer stores. Clifton tracked down surveillance video of Armstead and the others with the car, according to the police investigation.
Those two other people told police that Armstead was the one who pushed Batalla off the cliff, according to investigators. In September 2017 -- more than two years after Batalla’s death -- a grand jury indicted Armstead on a charge of murder.
In a plea agreement worked out between Deputy District Attorney Nicole Jergovic and Defense Attorney Alicia Hercher, Armstead pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter and third-degree robbery Friday in Multnomah County Circuit Court. He is now 23.
“This is an old case, and this is an old wound for the victim’s family,” Jergovic said. “They have really been suffering ever since their family member was killed.”
Armstead and Batalla had lived in the same apartment complex, and shortly before the killing had become Facebook friends and began messaging each other, Jergovic said.
Batalla’s parents, brother and other loved ones attended the hearing. They offered two statements, including the following:
“1,410 days ago, Irvin was abruptly taken from this world. For many of those days, we were left wondering what had happened to him and why this had happened to our family,” read one of the statements. “Irvin was mixed up with the wrong crowd and his vices eventually took over his life. Despite it all, he remained committed to being compassionate and caring for his family and friends in any way he could.”
In the weeks after the killing, it appeared on social media that Armstead was “nonchalantly” going on with his life as if all were great, the statement said.
“He landed a new job, moved in with some woman,” read the statement. “Life was good.”
Batalla’s relatives say their torment over losing Batalla “in such a gruesome manner will never end.”
When Multnomah County Circuit Judge Gregory Silver gave Armstead a chance to make a statement, Armstead declined.
-- Aimee Green
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