BAKER CITY — A Vale man who pleaded no contest in 2021 to three counts in the fatal shooting of Angela Parrish in Baker City in January 2020, and was sentenced to 90 months in state prison, has the option to withdraw that plea.

But if Shawn Quentin Greenwood, 53, who is an inmate at Snake River Correctional Institution near Ontario, decides to withdraw his plea, then Baker County District Attorney Greg Baxter could potentially prosecute Greenwood on six other counts that were dismissed in a 2021 plea agreement.

Four of those counts are Measure 11 offenses that have mandatory minimum prison sentences on conviction.

Greenwood’s earliest possible release date is Jan. 9, 2026, according to the Oregon Department of Corrections.

If he withdrew his 2021 plea and was then convicted on one of the Measure 11 charges, he would likely spend many more years in prison than if he didn’t withdraw the plea.

A three-judge panel of the Oregon Court of Appeals issued its ruling Wednesday, April 24 on Greenwood’s appeal. Attorneys for Greenwood and for the state argued the case before the appeals court on June 5, 2023.

How the case will proceed is not clear.

Greenwood’s attorney, Jim Schaeffer of La Grande, was not available to comment.

Baxter said he had not read the appeals court’s ruling and did not yet have a comment.

Greenwood pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide, a Class B felony, first-degree burglary, a Class A felony, and attempting to elude law enforcement, a Class C felony.

The appeals court dismissed the burglary charge.

The court also dismissed a charge of first-degree murder, which means the district attorney couldn’t prosecute Greenwood on that count even if he withdraws his 2021 plea.

The district attorney could, however, potentially prosecute Greenwood on six other charges:

• One count of second-degree murder. The mandatory minimum sentence is 25 years.

• One count of first-degree assault. The mandatory minimum sentence is seven years, six months.

• Two counts of second-degree assault, a Class B felony. The mandatory minimum sentence is five years, 10 months.

• One count of attempting to elude a police officer, a Class C felony.

• One count of solicitation to commit murder, a Class A felony.

The case

The appeals court’s decision to dismiss the burglary and first-degree murder charges was based on an investigation that showed Baker City Police Detective Shannon Regan, the lead investigator in Parrish’s murder, intentionally listened to phone calls between Greenwood and his lawyer, Schaeffer, in September 2020.

The appeals court judges concluded that by listening to the calls, Regan violated Greenwood’s constitutional rights.

The judges dismissed the two charges — burglary and first-degree murder — that Baxter added to the indictment after Regan listened to the phone calls.

The judges did not dismiss the six other charges, which were filed before the phone call incident, because Baxter did not have a chance to argue that those charges were not tainted by violation of Greenwood’s rights.

Baxter will have that chance should Greenwood withdraw his 2021 plea, the judges decided.