Papers: 'Mountain man' killing followed argument

Associated Press

ALBANY, Ore. - A camper known to friends as a mountain man died of shotgun blasts after an argument last week with two Colorado men in the Cascade Range, court documents show.

The documents were filed on Monday by the Linn County district attorney's office in the killing of Wayne Keith Klavano, 48, who moved from place to place, trapping and living off the land, the Albany Democrat-Herald reported.

Klavano was shot on July 29 at his campsite in the Soda Fork area in the Santiam River Valley.

His parents found his body the next day after he didn't show up for an appointment. That night, Utah authorities arrested Travis Adam Powers, 23, of Windsor, Colo., and Daniel Lewis Armbrecht, 20, of Pagosa Springs, Colo.

The documents say Powers told officers that during the argument, Klavano crouched as if to attack. The papers quote Power as saying he shot Klavano in the head and then twice more after Klavano fell to the ground.

A Linn County judge issued an arrest warrant for Powers and Armbrecht, who were initially held in Utah. It could not be immediately determined if they have lawyers.

A member of the Utah Highway Patrol stopped them because a headlight on their SUV was out. The court documents said a nephew of Klavano saw Powers driving from the campsite the day before the shooting.

Klavano was known to keep a rifle and two handguns.

The court documents say the two suspects told investigators they took the firearms and threw spent casings into the bushes to make it look like a robbery scene.