Port Angeles woman to appeal witness-tampering conviction

Kendell Huether

Kendell Huether

PORT ANGELES — Kendell K. Huether intends to appeal her conviction on two counts of witness tampering in connection with the murder of Jennifer Pimentel.

Huether, 27, pleaded guilty in April to rendering criminal assistance to Kevin A. Bradfield, the Port Angeles man who was sentenced May 29 to 25 years in prison for strangling Pimentel to death in October 2011.

Huether, also of Port Angeles, was found guilty in an April bench trial of two counts of tampering with a witness after the death of her childhood friend.

Pimentel was 27.

Huether was sentenced to 17 months on the three charges but did not serve additional jail time because she received credit for time already served in jail and on electronic home monitoring.

Her defense attorney, Karen Unger, has filed notice that Huether seeks review by the Court of Appeals, Division II, of the judgment and sentence.

Huether had previously told Clallam County Superior Court Judge S. Brooke Taylor that she intended to appeal the witness tampering convictions.

She had not been added to the appellate court docket as of Thursday.

Port Angeles police said Huether stood by as Bradfield strangled Pimentel in Huether’s Port Angeles apartment, then helped her boyfriend hide the body in the woods near the Hood Canal Bridge.

Huether then asked two friends to lie to police about seeing Pimentel enter a vehicle with an unknown man after her disappearance, according to the arrest narrative.

Bradfield and Huether led authorities to Pimentel’s body 10 days after her disappearance.

Bradfield is serving his sentence at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla.

Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.

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