A Hermiston man serving life sentences at the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem for shootings during the late 1980s has died.
The Oregon Department of Corrections reported James T. Birchard died April 22 at a hospital.
He was 70 years old. He entered DOC custody on Sept. 5, 1989, from Umatilla and Morrow counties with no parole date.
Local juries convicted Birchard in 1989 for attempting to murder and rob people in separate shootings in December 1988 on Interstate 84 near Hermiston. The “highway sniper,” as local media dubbed him at the time, shot one woman in the neck and shot at several others.
State court records show courts in Umatilla and Morrow counties sentenced Birchard to 85 years in all.
No one died as a result of Birchard’s crimes.
