Christopher Lovrien is arraigned in Multnomah County Circuit Court on Thursday, March 11, 2021. (Dave Killen/The Oregonian via AP)
The defendant in an Oregon man’s 1999 death pleaded guilty to killing the victim, but though he apologized in court, he reportedly asserted that he would have won his manslaughter case if he could afford a private lawyer.
“As far as the court is concerned I’m 100% in protest of this entire situation,” Christopher Lovrien, 56, said Friday in a Multnomah County courtroom, according to The Oregonian. “The court can go to hell.”
Lovrien, who is also the suspected killer in an ongoing recent murder case, will spend 20 years in prison with time served for manslaughter. Prosecutors said he killed Mark Dribin in 1999, who was last seen alive that year on July 1. They conceded that they cannot tell exactly what happened that fateful night. Lovrien reportedly asserted that he, a meth dealer, met with Dribin at an adult bookstore in the early morning of July 4, 1999.
Dribin invited him home but started to come onto him in his sleep, he said. Investigators discovered a large kitchen knife and signs of cleaned-up blood but the case went unsolved for about two decades, even though they found Dribin’s Ford Explorer abandoned in a rehab clinic parking lot next to where Lovrien lived at the time.
Mark Dribin (image via the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office)
Investigators said they solved the case in recent years after performing genetic genealogy to link DNA evidence to the defendant’s family. They spoke to Lovrien at a pub, where he denied knowing Dribin, but they got his DNA from a glass and confirmed the match.
The defendant reportedly claimed to have buried the body at Larch Mountain, which is near Portland, though he did not give a precise location. Authorities have yet to find Dribin’s body.
That leaves Lovrien to face an unrelated homicide case. He had sat with Portland detectives about the Dribin case on Nov. 18, 2019. Months later, on Feb. 2, 2020, his other alleged victim, Kenneth Griffin, 53, was reported missing.
Lovrien’s alleged role in that man’s disappearance surfaced while he was in jail for Dribin’s death. The defendant instructed his brother not to look in the shed, according to a reported prosecutors’ memo.
“There’s more to this than has been revealed and it’s bad,” he allegedly said. “I’ve got Satan in me.”
Later, his defense lawyer reportedly permitted cops to enter the shed, warning them to bring hazmat gear. Inside, they found Griffin’s body in three plastic bins.
Lovrien reportedly told a grand jury he killed Griffin in self-defense at home after the man had tried to steal his credit cards. He shot him in the chest with a crossbow and again in the head with another arrow after reloading, he reportedly said.
Kenneth Griffin (image via the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office)
Lovrien, who fired his attorney, is scheduled for a murder trial to start in April, the Oregonian stated.
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