Raymond Kelly

In the quiet, early hours of a Tuesday morning in Ontario, Oregon, a 911 call shattered the peace. Just before 1 a.m. on April 23, 2019, a caller from a home on Northwest 6th Street reported that a man had been shot in the head. The caller suggested the wound might be self-inflicted, but a critical piece of evidence was missing: there was no gun at the scene. Ontario Police officers arrived within minutes to find Raymond Kelly, a 21-year-old Caucasian man, deceased in his bedroom.

The initial theory of suicide was quickly dismissed as investigators began to process the scene. Evidence indicated that the fatal shot had not been fired from inside the room, but from outside Raymond's bedroom window. The Malheur County Major Crimes Team was activated, bringing together resources from multiple agencies, including the Oregon State Police, to investigate the homicide. The Oregon State Crime Lab was also dispatched to help gather and process evidence from the home.

The investigation swiftly led detectives to two local individuals, 20-year-old Nicholas Tucker and 21-year-old Starr Bales, both from Ontario. After being questioned by police, Tucker and Bales were arrested on the day of the shooting. They were subsequently charged with murder and criminal conspiracy in connection with Raymond Kelly’s death and booked into the Malheur County Jail. At their arraignment, a judge set bail for Starr Bales at $500,000, while Nicholas Tucker’s bail was set at $1 million. The Malheur County District Attorney's office prepared to present the case to a grand jury.

In January 2020, the case came to a resolution. Starr Bales entered a guilty plea to conspiracy to commit murder. On January 27, she was sentenced to 17 years in prison, to be followed by three years of post-prison supervision. Nicholas Tucker also entered a guilty plea for his role in the killing and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.