Two brothers were charged for the brutal murder of 16-year-old Benjamin Eastman, after his remains were found in a shallow grave last week.
Jonathon Adamson, 21, and Benito Marquez, 16, appeared in Lewis County Superior Court where they were hit with first-degree murder, first-degree rape, tampering with physical evidence, and unlawful disposal of remains.
In charging documents obtained by Q13FOX, prosecutors said that phone records show the brothers lured Eastman into the woods on June 24 for a camping trip in Randle, located about 110 miles south of Seattle.
Adamson admitted to the police that after Eastman joined them, they knocked him to the ground and kicked him over 100 times. He also confessed to sexually assaulting the boy with a stick while he was still alive. They allegedly struck him in the head with rocks to make sure he was dead before burying him. The brothers dug Eastman’s body back up in fear that the initial site would be discovered.
The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office said they came across a grave site that they were told was for a dog. But they “felt the information was suspicious in light of recent reports of the runaway/missing juvenile.”
They dug up the remains which were later identified as Eastman.
His classmates remember him as someone who was “always joking” and would do anything for a friend. “If you ever needed something he was there,” Peyton White told Q13FOX. “He’d give you the shirt off his back.”
Prosecutors decided on Monday to charge Marquez as an adult, and the judge ordered the brothers held on $10 million bails.
