Sex offender: Woman 'had to die'

09:06 AM PDT on Tuesday, October 26, 2010

By SARAH BURGE
The Press-Enterprise

A self-described Satanist who drove his dead girlfriend to the Lake Elsinore sheriff's station last week admitted in a jailhouse interview Monday to strangling the woman.

Jason Richard Budrow, 30, a registered sex offender who lives in the unincorporated Good Hope area near Lake Elsinore, said he feared the 48-year-old woman was a police informant.

"She had to die," Budrow said.

Budrow is jailed on suspicion of murder at the Southwest Detention Center in French Valley.

Resting his heavily tattooed arms on the counter in front of him and gazing through the glass divider into the visitors' room, Budrow spoke calmly as he described how he killed the woman.

She came over to his trailer behind a liquor store off Highway 74, he said. The woman, with whom he said he had a sexual relationship, got scared after realizing that he had "discovered her." She was on her way to her car when he strangled her about 2 or 3 a.m. Friday, Budrow said.

"I desecrated her body," he said, declining to elaborate.

Budrow said he shoved her body into the trunk of her white Chrysler Sebring convertible, then napped until his "curfew" -- an apparent reference to a parole requirement -- expired at 5 a.m.

Budrow said he drove away in the Sebring and at some point cut off the GPS-monitoring ankle bracelet that he must wear as a registered sex offender on parole.

"I murdered her while I was wearing that bracelet," he said.

Budrow declined to say what else he did in the hours before he arrived at the sheriff's station. If he had access to a gun, he said, he would have killed several other people. He did not explain why.

After pulling into the station parking lot and flagging someone down about 7:25 a.m., Budrow said he knelt on the pavement and put his hands in the air.

"I told them I had a body in my trunk," he said.

At first, he said, sheriff's officials were incredulous and asked if he was "playing games." He said they thought the trunk might have been booby trapped.

Budrow said he believed undercover law enforcement officers had been watching his every move and that he turned himself in because he was convinced they would eventually catch him.

The woman, Budrow said, knew he was involved in drug dealing and pimping and he thought she was going to reveal the names of "important people."

Sheriff's officials have said Budrow showed up at the sheriff's station and told a sergeant there was a body in the trunk. They declined to comment Monday on Budrow's statements.

Coroner's officials have not released the woman's name. Sheriff's officials said only that she was dating Budrow.

Capt. Dave Fontneau said that, so far, there is no indication the woman was sexually assaulted. He declined to say how she was killed.

Fontneau said an autopsy is scheduled for today.

'666'

Budrow said he has worked various jobs, including a stint selling time shares by phone. Riverside County court records show he served in the Army years ago but was discharged after testing positive for drugs.

The numbers "666" are tattooed above his right brow because he is a "Satanist," he said. At one point, Budrow lifted up his orange jail shirt to display a scar on his chest that he said was from ritual bloodletting.

While he hopes to spend the rest of his life leading an "Ozzie and Harriet" existence in a prison cell, Budrow said he's sure that he will be sentenced to death.

Budrow said he doesn't fear execution. He doesn't believe in an afterlife.

Though Budrow is on parole and a registered sex offender, his name, photo and other information did not appear Friday on the Megan's Law online database of registered sex offenders. By Monday, after sheriff's officials pointed out the omission, an entry was added. State Department of Justice officials could not explain Monday why Budrow was not listed.

Until Friday, sheriff's officials said Budrow had complied with his registration requirements. He had been checking in at the Lake Elsinore station since June 2006.

Budrow said he had been sent back to prison for parole violations, including a "rampage" at a halfway house. Terry Thornton, a Department of Corrections spokeswoman, declined to release details, saying the department gave the information to the Sheriff's Department. It was up to them to decide whether to disclose it, she said. Fontneau declined to do so on Monday.

Riverside County court records show Budrow pleaded guilty in 2004 to sexual penetration by force and was sentenced to three years in prison.

A probation officer's report says Budrow was staying with his grandparents in 2003 at a property they managed in Lakeland Village, near Lake Elsinore. He slipped into the bedroom of a 14-year-old neighbor one night and performed sex acts on the girl, court records say. The girl said she told him to stop but did not yell or resist out of fear for her safety, the report says.

Budrow told authorities he had been intoxicated from beer and marijuana, that he thought the girl was 17 and the encounter was consensual.

"He said if he did not confess, he could not live with himself, or run from the truth," the report says.

The probation officer wrote that Budrow would have been suitable for probation had he been eligible. He had no prior convictions and "demonstrated what appeared to be sincere remorse for his offense," the report says.

At the property where the sex assault occurred, his uncle, Eric Sisneros, said Monday he hasn't seen much of Budrow since his nephew got out of prison. Still, he couldn't believe he was capable of murder.

"He was always a gentle, kind person," Sisneros said. "Timid."

From: http://www.pe.com/localnews/stories/PE_News_Local_D_webjailhouse.78db9c.html