Cocolalla man awaits hearing for CA killings

SANDPOINT — A pretrial hearing is pending for Christian Leonard Bunty Sr., a Cocolalla man charged with first-degree murder in California.

Bunty is being held without bail at the Adelanto Detention Center, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Office website. Bunty is ineligible for bail because prosecutors are seeking a lifelong prison sentence without parole if he’s convicted.

Bunty, 41, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder, criminal conspiracy and burglary. James Linzy Franklin, 42, is likewise charged and is already serving a life sentence for an unrelated homicide in California.

Barstow Police investigators allege Bunty and Franklin lured two men to their deaths in 1995 by offering to sell them ephedrine, an ingredient used to make methamphetamine.

But detectives contend the ephedrine was a ruse to lure Mark Wayne Adamson and Joseph Gerald Riley to a remote location, where they were robbed of $9,000 and killed.

Barstow authorities allege Bunty and Franklin were part of a crew that robbed drug dealers at gunpoint while posing as FBI agents. Detective Keith Libby asserts that the double homicide was a violent escalation of the group’s modus operandi.

The bodies of Adamson and Riley remain unaccounted for, but investigators believe they have sufficient evidence to gain convictions.

Bunty relocated to Idaho after the disappearances and became a business owner with a reputation for helping neighbors and being active in the community. Outside of some traffic offenses, Bunty has no criminal record in Bonner County, according to the Idaho Supreme Court Data Repository.

Bunty was arrested by Idaho State Police last December, 17 years after the two alleged victims disappeared. Franklin was already serving a life sentence without parole for a murder in Big Bear, Calif.

Franklin is imprisoned at Centinela State Prison near El Centro, according to the California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation.

A superior court judge in Fontana ruled in March that there was sufficient evidence to justify trying Bunty. A pre-preliminary hearing in Franklin’s case is set for Aug. 20, San Bernardino Superior Court records show.

Bunty, also known as Christion Bunty, entered not guilty pleas, court documents indicate.

Friends and family contend corrupt authorities in California are railroading him.