FILE - Ian Cranston listens to opening statements during the first day of his murder trial at the Deschutes County Courthouse in Bend, Thursday, Nov. 3, 2022.
Courtesy of Dean Guernsey / Bend Bulletin
The Oregon Court of Appeals has reversed guilty verdicts against Ian Mackenzie Cranston, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for fatally shooting Barry Washington Jr. outside a Bend nightclub in 2021. A Deschutes County court found Cranston guilty of five counts, including first-degree manslaughter, about 14 months after the shooting happened.
The appeals court filed its opinion last week. According to court documents, the Deschutes County trial court should have told jurors that Cranston didn’t have “a duty to retreat under Oregon self-defense law.”
The decision comes almost three years after Cranston’s conviction, and days after a memorial plaque was installed in honor of Washington near the site of the shooting.
Joslyn Stanfield unveils Barry Washington Jr.'s memorial plaque in Bend, Ore., on Oct. 25, 2025. Stanfield was instrumental in getting the plaque installed.
Kathryn Styer Martínez / OPB
His death sparked protests against racism in Bend. Washington, who was Black, was unarmed when Cranston, who is white, fatally shot him with a handgun during a fight outside of a nightclub.
Kevin Sali, Cranston’s attorney, emailed a statement this week.
“We are grateful to the Court of Appeals for recognizing that the jury in the first trial was not instructed properly, and we expect that in the second trial there will be no doubt about Ian’s innocence,” Sali wrote.
Washington’s mother, La’Wanda Roberson, attended the dedication ceremony in October. After receiving the news that Cranston’s conviction was overturned, she took to social media addressing the Court of Appeals decision. “Beyond angry, I’m not going to be polite, or graceful,” she wrote in a Facebook post.
Roberson previously told OPB, “I’m not to that point yet where I can forgive anyone for taking my son away.”
Now, according to Deschutes County District Attorney Steve Gunnels, the case will likely “be coming back to Deschutes County for a new trial.” He added that it “would sort of start from the beginning as if the individual had just been charged with the crime.”
That’s unless the Oregon Department of Justice files a petition to have the Oregon Supreme Court review the appellate court’s decision, according to Jenny Hansson, spokesperson for Oregon Attorney General and Department of Justice.
The justice department has five weeks to decide if it wants to file a petition, Hansson wrote in an email. Dec. 3 is currently the DOJ’s deadline to file a petition for the Supreme Court to review the Court of Appeals opinion.
