Montana
‘Town Crier’ – Briefs From the Region (1) – 10/22/19
Radavich gets life sentence for Tester murder
On Sept. 6, 2016, Robert Tester, nephew of Montana Sen. Jon Tester was murdered in his Spangle, Washington, home by then-21-year-old John Radavich. The young man drove a sword into Tester, 35, whose daughter, 8 at the time, was sharing a bed with her father on the night of the savage attack. Tester ultimately received more than 66 wounds, dying from a splitting maul blow to the back of his head. Radavich claimed the attack was in retaliation for alleged abuse of a 17-year-old girl he had recently dated. On Aug. 28, a Spokane County Superior Court jury found Radavich guilty of first-degree aggravated murder, and on Friday, Oct. 18, Spokane County Superior Court Judge Maryann Moreno delivered a life sentence without the possibility of parole. “The ugliness of it will stay with me a long time,” Moreno said after announcing the sentence. “It shook the community.”
