Man accused in Cheney pot shop slaying now claims he made separate ‘revenge’ killing

A man accused of killing a Cheney pot shop employee made an on-camera confession to another slaying this summer to KHQ.

Donovan Culps, who is charged in the kidnapping and shooting death of Cameron Smith, told the television station during a jailhouse interview Tuesday that he stabbed and slit the throat of a man on the Yakama Indian Reservation because that man killed the mother of his child.

According to court documents, Culps was asked by authorities if he was also involved in the disappearance of a man on the Yakama Indian Reservation who’d been missing for two months.

“I killed him,” he told investigators, according to the documents that provided no further information on the case, or the missing man’s name.

Culps told KHQ the missing man murdered Felina Metsker on the Yakama Indian Reservation in 2016. Her remains were discovered by authorities weeks later, according to reports.

“He took me out to her trailer and she was laying there dead with a blanket over her. Blood everywhere,” Culps told KHQ. He then said he killed the man near a water tower in Medicine Valley in act of revenge.

According to the Yakima Herald-Republic, Metsker’s body wasn’t identified until June 2017. The FBI told the newspaper her death was “probably” a homicide, but didn’t list any suspects.

Culps told KHQ he left the missing man’s body outside, but authorities haven’t confirmed Culps’ connection in the killing or if the man is dead.

When Culps was arrested in Goldendale on Sept. 14 in connection to the Smith’s death, he was questioned by Cheney Police Captain Richard Beghtol and FBI agent Jen Terami.

Begthol told the Spokesman-Review on Wednesday that some of Culps’ stories weren’t adding up and that he doesn’t know if he did, in fact, kill the missing man in question.

“He may or may not have been involved in that case,” said Beghtol, who said he also didn’t know the name of the missing man because it was an FBI investigation.

When asked if he was involved with the disappearance of the man on the Yakama Indian Reservation, Beghtol said Culps “blurted out ‘I killed him.’”

When the Spokesman-Review asked the Yakama Tribal Police the names of missing people Wednesday, it told the newspaper to contact the FBI. The FBI said it couldn’t disclose information on active cases.

Culps is currently being held in Spokane County Jail on $1 million bond.