Highway 108 body dump case ends

Two years after a man was brutally strangled in Atwater and his body dumped off of Highway 108 near Little Sweden, the case has come to a close, with two men in prison for the crime.

Atwater resident Beau Ordonez, 29, pleaded guilty to first degree robbery and the first degree murder of Terrince Tate, 39. Ordonez was sentenced to 25 years to life in November.

Merced resident Charles Hukill, 31, accepted a plea agreement and was sentenced to four years in prison Friday.

He has already served two of those years and could be released as early as July, said Merced County Deputy District Attorney David Sandhaus.
   

On June 6, 2007, Ordonez and Hukill were at the Outpost bar in Winton drinking. There, they met Tate, who was clearly intoxicated, buying drinks and flashing money.

The pair offered Tate a ride home, and he accepted.

The defendants told investigators that Tate was so inebriated that they were unable to find his home in Atwater.

Ordonez, who was sitting in the back seat behind Tate, pulled his shoelaces out of his shoes and began punching Tate, Sandhaus said. Then he strangled him with the shoelaces.

Hukill and Ordonez drove to Twain Harte, where Ordonez’s parents own a vacation home on Fuller Drive, police said at the time.

They cleaned up and burned clothing in the fireplace, then drove up Highway 108. About four miles east of Long Barn, they dragged the body out of the vehicle and several hundred yards down the embankment.

Hukill told investigators he got home early in the morning, where he threw up and called police, Sandhaus said.

The investigators set up a taped phone call between Hukill and Ordonez. In the call, Ordonez implicated himself in the murder, Sandhaus said.

Hukill left the blood in the car intact so investigators could collect evidence. He also led them to the body.   

Investigators issued a search warrant on the cabin and found Tate’s wallet in Ordonez’s jacket, along with the burned clothing and shoes without laces.

The case against Ordonez was straightforward. 

“It’s our belief he’ll never get out of prison,” Sandhaus said.

Hukill’s role in the crime isn’t so clear, he said.

His defense is that he assisted Ordonez because he was afraid for his own life, Sandhaus said.

“Clearly we feel he helped to dispose of the body,” Sandhaus said. “His story is he had no choice, but that story is a little hard to believe.” 

Hukill’s attorney, Merced-based Jeffrey Tenenbaum, did not return a call.

Had Hukill not assisted police, Sandhaus said, it could have been months before investigators found the body. By then, an autopsy wouldn’t have been so conclusive, he said.

Still, four years seems like little price to pay for his role, said Merced resident Edna Reid, Tate’s aunt.

She doesn’t believe Hukill’s story that he was helpless.

“He gets four years for toting my nephew’s body and throwing it down the mountain,” she said. “I just don’t understand the law sometimes here.”

Sandhaus understands that the family is upset.

“This thing was so cold and so brutal, it’s hard for them to understand how Hukill can walk away from that,” he said.

But had there been a trial, Sandhaus would have risked Hukill getting away with a not guilty verdict. Sandhaus would have had to prove Hukill’s willing involvement beyond a reasonable doubt to a jury, and Hukill had a complete defense, he said.

“There’s going to be some empathy for Hukill if we went to trial in this case because he did so much to help us,” Sandhaus said.

Reid said the District Attorney’s office didn’t discuss the agreement with the family before making the deal.

The outcome has left her angry and grieving over her nephew’s death.

“I’m going to have this feeling to the day I die,” she said.