Sisters teen pleads guilty in killing

Almost exactly a year after he killed 42-year-old Curtis Dean Kizer in Drake Park in Bend, Stephen Withrow of Sisters pleaded guilty to manslaughter in Deschutes County Circuit Court.

Withrow, who had faced a murder charge, reportedly agreed to a 20-year sentence, which was officially handed down on Monday, April 11. Additional robbery and assault charges were reportedly dropped in the plea agreement. The Sisters man, now 18, must serve a minimum of 10 years of his sentence under Measure 11 provisions before being eligible for sentence reductions for good behavior.

Withrow admitted killing Curtis Dean Kizer in Bend’s Drake Park on the evening of April 16 last year in anapparently unprovoked attack.

Bend Police detectives arrested Withrow at Sisters High School the following Monday morning.

Search warrant affidavits detailed a savage assault in which witnesses said that the 6-foot-3-inch, 250-pound Withrow knocked Kizer out with a single punch to the head while the man was standing by a parkstairway.

Then, according to witness statements in an affidavit, Withrow “jumped on top of (Kizer) and continued to beat him. (The witness) stated that the juvenile grabbed the front of Kizer’s shirt, lifted him up slightly and punched him in the face four or five more times.

He said the juvenile then climbed to the second step above Kizer and jumped directly onto his chest.”

Two other Sisters boys were present at the time of the attack. They were never charged in the incident.