Court papers say Kolton Esparza asked to be dropped off elsewhere before police say he was taken toward a trailhead and fatally beaten.
KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. — The last route police say Kolton Esparza traveled through Klamath Falls now sits at the center of a homicide case after investigators alleged that the unhoused man was denied a requested drop-off, taken toward a trailhead and beaten so badly that he later died.
In this telling of the case, the movement matters as much as the violence. Investigators say Esparza was not simply found injured inside a vacant home. He was first picked up with others, transported across town, left in a corridor near the Eulolona Trailhead, and later discovered in a house along the same line of travel with catastrophic injuries and rope around his wrists. That sequence helped police build kidnapping counts alongside murder and assault charges, and it also sharpened questions about control, intent and who was with Esparza as his final hours unfolded.
According to a probable cause affidavit described in reporting on the case, Jamie S. Harrington told police she drove her 2006 Dodge Dakota to an address off Summers Lane and picked up her brother, Reggie L. Townsend Jr., and two men she said she did not know. One of them was later identified in court records as Esparza. The affidavit says Esparza asked whether he could be dropped off at another location, but Harrington “told him no” and instead drove the group to the Eulolona Trailhead. Harrington then told investigators that the three men got out and walked east on Cypress Avenue. About 10 minutes later, she said, she left the area and picked up two of the men on foot. By then, Esparza was no longer with them.
Hours later, or soon after enough time had passed for concern to build, police were called to a vacant residence at 875 Cypress Ave. just before 11 a.m. on Feb. 26 for a welfare check. The caller reported an unhoused man inside who was naked and looked badly beaten. Officers found Esparza critically injured. Emergency crews took him to Sky Lakes Medical Center, and after doctors stabilized him, he was transferred to St. Charles Medical Center in Bend. He later died from severe head trauma, according to the affidavit summarized in coverage of the case. The same records say his body showed signs of torture and that his wrists were bound with rope, details that immediately pushed the investigation beyond a random assault and toward a fatal attack with restraint and sustained violence.
Investigators then worked backward from the scene. The vacant house where Esparza was found, according to the affidavit, sat directly east of the trailhead and directly in the path of travel for both the vehicle and the suspects on foot. That geographic detail gave detectives a physical map to compare against interviews and later evidence. Police also obtained a letter that Townsend allegedly wrote to his girlfriend. In it, according to the affidavit, he said, “I beat Kolton with a rock and stomped him out with my shoes.” The statement became one of the most striking pieces of the public case record, not only because of its blunt wording, but because it appeared to match the extreme injuries described by investigators and the argument that the attack was both personal and prolonged.
Arrests came one after another as detectives tightened the case. Harrington, 49, was arrested on Friday, Feb. 27. Townsend, 34, was taken into custody late Saturday, Feb. 28, during what police described as a high-risk traffic stop. Wesley J. Powless, 39, was arrested on Monday, March 2. The split in charges reflects what prosecutors appear to see as different roles. Townsend was charged with first-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping, tampering with evidence, unlawful use of a weapon and felon in possession of a firearm. Harrington was reported charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and kidnapping, while Powless was charged with second-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping, first-degree assault and tampering with evidence. Authorities have not publicly explained in detail what Powless is accused of doing during the fatal encounter itself.
The route through the city also frames the wider context. Esparza was described in coverage as an unhoused man, and the place where he was found was a vacant residence in a corridor near a trailhead rather than a private home or business. That combination of vulnerability and location became part of the public understanding of the case. Police have not publicly identified a clear motive. They have not said whether Esparza knew all of the people he was with that day, or why, once he asked to be let out elsewhere, the trip continued in another direction. But the allegations now before the court suggest prosecutors believe Esparza’s movements were controlled before the fatal beating, making the travel itself one of the key acts in the case, not just background to it.
The case stood at the charging phase with a preliminary hearing for Townsend publicly listed for March 9, while investigators continued to piece together what happened between the trailhead stop, the walk east on Cypress Avenue and the moment Esparza was found inside the vacant home.
Author note: Last updated March 31, 2026.