Jokinen indicted on murder charge

A Deschutes County grand jury last week indicted Joshua Jokinen of Pendleton for murder in the beating death of Carolyn Burdick at her home on Kent Road east of Sisters on Saturday, August 31.

The indictment notes that Jokinen was on parole for a previous criminal offense at the time of the killing and that the 78-year-old Burdick was an especially vulnerable person.

Jokinen, age 30, reportedly used a shovel to beat Burdick to death. He later contacted dispatch from a location in Madras Saturday night to report that he had killed a woman near Sisters.

Pastor Frank Fraga of New Hope Christian Center discovered Burdick's body. Fraga told The Nugget that Burdick knew Jokinen and that the connection was through a woman Burdick was trying to help.

Online records indicate that Jokinen has an extensive arrest record including arrests for theft, violation of restraining order and a March 2013 arrest in Umatilla County for parole violation. In 2006 he was sentenced to six years in prison for assaulting a man with a trailer hitch ball, striking him hard enough to fracture his skull.