COQUILLE, Ore. (KMTR) -- After weeks without leads, the Coos County Jail now has a suspect behind bars for the murder of Randy Harless.
Harless was brutally beaten and left for dead in his driveway in Coos Bay late last month.
Coos County District Attorney Paul Frasier says, police received a valuable tip in the case about a week ago that lead them to 45-year-old Andrew Davenport of North Bend. They were able to arrest Davenport for a prior parole violation. From there, the murder investigation continued to progress.
“We had most of the major crime team members out Tuesday night, doing a series of interviews,” says Frasier, who added they were there until about 3:00 AM.
“Mr. Davenport was taken into custody that night,” he says. “That allowed the officers to work more on the case on Wednesday and Thursday, to the point to where we felt that we were ready to present the case to the grand jury Friday.”
Frasier wouldn't speak about any known motives, but he did say that Davenport and Harless had once been considered to be best friends.
Davenport's appointed defense attorney could not be in court today. The court proceeded with an automatic plea of not guilty. An official plea should be entered when Davenport appears in court again on Monday, November 19.
