Ian Cranston has been released from Deschutes County Jail, having posted 10% of his $500,000 bail, the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office confirmed.
Cranston, 31, had appeared virtually at a motion for release hearing at Deschutes County Circuit Court Monday morning, where the bail amount and conditions of his release were discussed. The court will likely set future dates for a Cranston’s re-trial in the 2021 shooting death of Barry Washington Jr in the coming weeks, the DA’s Office said.
Cranston’s 2022 conviction of manslaughter in the first and second degrees and other felonies stemming from the Sept. 19, 2021, shooting death of Barry Washington Jr. were overturned by the Oregon Court of Appeals on Oct. 29, owing to a procedural error, the Source reported. In its appeal, Cranston’s defense argued that the jury should have been informed that a person does not have the duty to retreat before using deadly force in self-defense in Oregon.
As she did during the jury trial, Circuit Judge Beth Bagley presided over the release hearing. Conditions of Cranston’s release include not using, possessing or purchasing any firearms, ammunition or alcohol. He is prohibited from entering any place where alcohol is the chief item for sale. Additionally, he is not allowed within 150 feet of a downtown Bend club (outside of which the shooting happened) nor is he allowed to contact the surviving members of Washington’s family.
Cranston will likely face a new trial, yet he won’t be re-charged with murder of the second degree, of which a jury acquitted him during his initial conviction on Nov. 16, 2022 (that would be double jeopardy.) He could face the same initial charges of first- and second-degree manslaughter, first-degree assault and to a count of unlawful use of a weapon.
Cranston had already spent about four years in custody. On Dec. 23, he was transferred to the Deschutes County Jail from the Snake River Correctional Facility near Ontario, Oregon, where he’d previously been serving his 10-year sentence.
On Sept. 19, 2021, Cranston, who was 27 at the time and living in Redmond, was drinking with his fiancee at The Capital night club in downtown Bend. Cranston had a permit to carry a concealed firearm and was carrying a handgun. A dispute broke out regarding attention that Washington, 22, was allegedly paying Cranston’s partner. Outside the club, Washington, who had recently moved to Bend from the Bay Area, punched Cranston twice, after which Cranston shot Washington once in the torso, killing him.
The shooting death of Washington, who was unarmed and is Black (Cranston is white), came during a national movement of racial justice protests stemming from the 2020 death of George Floyd while in police custody in Minneapolis.
At the release hearing, Cranston, appeared remotely, wore a jail-issued black V-neck tee. His hair was longer than during his original trial appearances, and he’d since regrown a beard. Both Cranston’s parents and LaWanda Roberson, Washington’s mother, appeared virtually during the release hearing. Roberson gave an emotional statement during the hearing in which she admonished Cranston for taking the life of her son.
“The day my son was taken from me, my world was shattered,” Roberson said while choking up. “My faith was instantly tested. I was angry at God and questioned him. I did not want to be on this Earth without my son. The pain is something I had never felt before in my life.”
Roberson said she misses her son’s smile, his warm hugs, his goofy laugh and their conversations together.
“Ian Cranston, I want you to know that your actions have consequences that extend beyond the moment of violence,” Roberson continued. “I will never forgive you, and I know I will have to answer to God for that. I hope your life is as miserable for the rest of your days as my life is miserable. Ian Cranston has never shown one ounce of remorse or reflected on the gravity of the choices and the loss that he inflicted.”
Cranston’s attorney, Kevin Sali, originally sought no bail, yet, if Judge Bagley insisted on a cash security, then that it be set no higher than $150,000. Sali reasoned that his client posed little flight risk, as he has lived in Oregon his entire life and his family network resides in the Clackamas area. Sali also mentioned that Cranston had no criminal background before this case. He also cited Cranston’s accountability after his initial release in being where he told authorities he would be, should they re-arrest him, as they did, when charges were augmented to include murder of the second degree shortly after the shooting.
Deputy District Attorney Brooks McClain, in arguing for a $500,000 bail, said that although Cranston’s conviction has come back on appeal, it is still uncontested during this process that the shot that Cranston fired killed Washington in downtown Bend “on a fairly busy night on a public street with other citizens in the area.”
Asked via email how his office felt about the $500,000 bail, District Attorney Steve Gunnels declined to comment.
A bronze memorial for Washington, paid for by crowdsourcing and permitted by the City, now stands near the site of the shooting at the corner of NW Wall Street and NW Oregon Avenue.
This article appears in the Source January 15, 2026.
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Procedural error? Read the appeal court’s decision – this was a significant and deliberate act on the judge’s part in support of the DA Office’s line of questioning and had the jury been impartially informed – they may have arrived at a different verdict.
“While the Oregon Department of Justice (DOJ) has not publicly announced a final decision, current legal developments as of January 2026 suggest a higher likelihood of a retrial than a successful Supreme Court appeal.
“Key factors influencing this likelihood include:
“Status of the Retrial Process: On January 12, 2026, a judge set Ian Cranston’s bail at $500,000, and he has since been released after posting 10%. The scheduling of bail and status hearings (the next set for January 28, 2026) typically indicates that local prosecutors are actively preparing for a new trial.
DOJ Deadline: In November 2025, it was reported that the DOJ had roughly five weeks to decide on a petition; while they have the option to seek a review by the Oregon Supreme Court, they have not yet done so publicly.
“Legal Basis for Reversal: The Court of Appeals ruled that the original trial judge made a clear error by not instructing the jury on Oregon’s “no duty to retreat” law. Legal experts and local officials, including Deschutes County DA Steve Gunnels, have noted that because this involved a failure to provide a legally required instruction, the case is more likely to return to the county for a retrial.
Double Jeopardy Constraints: Any retrial would be limited to manslaughter and lesser charges, as Cranston was already acquitted of second-degree murder in the 2022 trial.
“If the DOJ declines to petition the Supreme Court, or if the court refuses to hear the case, the matter will return to Deschutes County to “start from the beginning” with a new jury.” – AI
Or the case can / may be closed should the current DA believe, given what a new trial may reveal that was kept under wraps by Hummel/Bagley (Washington’s CALI criminal record…his BAC %…his behavior in the bar…the video showing him initiating the incident outside of the bar…etc), a jury, properly informed, may find him not guilty.
Pretty straightfotward.