Rick Bevel, 68, said he came to love Ashland; fiancée says injuries hastened his death

By Morgan Rothborne, Ashland.news

Rick Bevel was 68 years old when he died Friday, April 26, about a month after he was discharged from the intensive care unit at a Portland hospital where he had been treated for injuries sustained during an altercation and ensuing fire on Jan. 16 at the city of Ashland’s dusk-to-dawn sleeping area — an event his fiancée says led to his death.

Not long before the incident, Bevel told Ashland.news that, despite his frustration with the conditions in the sleeping area, he loved Ashland. Interviewed in December 2023 for a story about the “night lawn” behind Ashland’s police department and City Council chamber designated for public camping since May, he spoke frankly about his life. 

“I come here and I fell in love with them and they fell in love with me,” Bevel said of his time in Ashland. “I’ve felt more love here than I’ve ever felt in my life.” 

That cold December evening Bevel sat in his wheelchair with one foot resting on the chair’s leg rest. The other foot was gone, lost some time prior in an accident with a train. Doctors chose to amputate after they were unable to properly reconstruct the lower half of the leg. That leg now terminated in a stump wrapped in green plastic and black fabric.

Bevel watched other guests of the city’s sleeping area putting up his tent for the night. His friends were trying to make it easier for Bevel to follow the city of Ashland’s rules: All tents must be taken down in the morning and can’t be rebuilt until the evening, meaning all materials have to be hauled off the lawn in the morning and brought back in the evening. 

He talked with a small bottle of liquor held barely in view against his thigh. Eight years prior he moved to Ashland and said the love he felt changed him into a happier person — not a perfect one. A wry smile was nearly omnipresent under his long gray mustache. His gravelly voice betrayed an honesty riding between dry humor and melancholy. 

“I drink a lot, smoke a lot of pot, cause I got a lot of pain I’m going through,” he said. 

Bevel said he lived on the street from the time he left home at 15 to escape the violence of his stepfather. His mother was hardly better, he said.

“My baby sister died in my arms. … I couldn’t find the bottom of a bottle,” he said. 

Before coming to Ashland in 2016, Bevel said, he was an alcoholic, an addict, and “nobody would want to know me.” 

He complained of rats “thick as thieves” in the city’s sleeping area. He wished he had a prosthetic again so he could be more mobile and, when asked, conceded it was difficult to properly care for his leg living in these conditions. He also required a larger tent to accommodate a cot; it was too difficult for him to sleep on the ground. He said he was living on $19 a month in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps) benefits and using a propane stove for heat and cooking. 

Night lawn fire

On Jan. 16, two night lawn guests used a small, camping-size propane tank as a bludgeon in an altercation with a third guest — all on the doorstep of Bevel’s tent. Bevel, his fiancée Karen Greenwood and Greenwood’s dog, Missy, were severely burned in the ensuing fire. In the week prior to the incident Bevel had both proposed to Greenwood and had been recovering from pneumonia, according to previous reporting by Ashland.news. 

Reached by phone last week, Greenwood said she believes “without a doubt,” the fire ultimately led to Bevel’s death because, she said, his body could not handle the stress of his injuries. 

Two suspects were arrested after the fire: Jocelyn Christopher Cotner, 47, and Noah Rey Brennan, 19. Both were lodged in the Jackson County Jail with identical charges: two felony charges of second-degree assault, an additional felony charge of third-degree assault, and misdemeanor charges of menacing and reckless endangering. 

Brennan initially pleaded not guilty to all charges, then pled guilty to third-degree assault and was convicted. All other charges were dismissed and he was released on probation Feb. 6 and ordered to pay $10,945.35 in restitution to the state, according to court documents.

Cotner is still waiting for a pre-trial hearing. The hearing has been rescheduled three times, first at the behest of the prosecution seeking medical records to establish Cotner’s fitness to stand trial,  then at the request of the defense to allow time to review an offer made by the state, and a third time because the defense had retained an “expert and investigator,” according to court records. 

A pre-trial conference is scheduled for July 15, where the defendant can enter a change of plea, decide to continue negotiations, or set a trial date, according to an email from Jackson County Deputy District Attorney Sara Shaw. 

Greenwood said it has been hard to accept Bevel is gone. After the fire, she never saw him again. 

Both were immediately hospitalized the night of the incident, first in Medford then at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center in Portland. Bevel had to be intubated due to the condition of his lungs, then had a minor stroke and was placed in a medically induced coma. Greenwood said hospital staff would not let her see him because she was not on his listed emergency contacts.

When she was wheeled through the hospital for surgery, her bed was pushed through the Intensive Care Unit where she had heard Bevel was. 

“I sat up, as far forward as I could, just to try to get a glimpse and know he was still there,” she said, but didn’t spot him.

Greenwood recovered enough to be discharged and traveled back to Ashland to reunite with her dog, Missy, in February. Bevel called Greenwood after he came out of the coma and the pair began strategizing how they would come together again. He was discharged from the hospital around a month ago and continued living in Portland while he moved his way up the wait list at the Opportunities for Housing, Resources & Assistance (OHRA) shelter in Ashland. Greenwood asked staff if Bevel could move into her room at the shelter and was told no, because they were not married. 

She remembered their last phone call. 

“Rick’s last words to me were, ‘You better be prepared, I’m coming back to put a ring on your finger,’” she said. 

Two days later, Bevel was moving through Portland in his wheelchair when he had a massive heart attack. In the month prior, he had “not had a drop” 0f alcohol and, in his sobriety, appeared to be doing well. Greenwood had encouraged him to see a doctor; he refused. 

Dancing sitting down

Greenwood said she first met him in October last year after a previous traveling companion drove away and left her one night in front of a church in Ashland. She walked to Lithia Park, fell asleep, and woke up to a police officer giving her a ticket and directing her to the dusk-to-dawn sleeping area. The next morning, she saw Bevel. 

“It was a beautiful day. I saw him sitting in his tent. I said, ‘You got to get outside dude.’ He looked at me and said, ‘Who are you to tell me what to do?’” she said. 

She informed him she was a “sharp little red head who will kick your a– if you don’t.” 

Bevel joined her outside. Shortly after that, she moved into his tent. Two months later, he proposed. Because he could not stand, she said the pair would dance sitting down every night. The previous August, Greenwood lost a son. Bevel held her and listened when she needed to cry. But they spent time laughing too. 

“He’d say some off the wall s— and I’d start laughing. He’d turn to me with a straight face and say, ‘That’s not funny,’ I’d keep laughing and then he’d be busting a gut,” she said. 

Above all, she said, she wanted Bevel’s compassion to be remembered. One night, a young woman came to the dusk-to-dawn sleeping area with nothing. Bevel immediately insisted Greenwood take a tarp and blankets to the woman as she was preparing to sleep in the cold. While Bevel was in the hospital, Greenwood said she was asked daily by the many who loved him when he would return home. 

When he tried to tell her some of the more sordid episodes in his past, Greenwood said she pushed him to change his focus. 

“I said, ‘I don’t care about your past. That’s over and done with, I’m here right now. Our day is today. Because tomorrow is not promised, yesterday is gone, today is all we have,’” she said. 

She said she had been optimistic about their future in recent weeks. It has been difficult for her to accept their time together would be so short.   

Just before the fire in January, decades of struggling with alcoholism had taken their toll on his liver and kidneys. He was sick and thought he could die. Greenwood said he told her his final wishes and she has honored them. He was “very specific,” that he did not want to be on any kind of life support. After the heart attack, he was without oxygen for an unknown amount of time before being stabilized at a hospital where he was left on life support only until his brother could arrive. Doctors “pulled the plug” at around 11:30 a.m. Bevel did not die until 10 p.m. 

The next morning, Greenwood remembered waking up to a full rainbow stretching from one end of the sky to the other. 

Bevel will be cremated and his ashes will be poured into the ocean, as he requested.

During his December interview, Bevel appeared to have said all he had to say, then paused as his face took a thoughtful turn before concluding, “I’m nobody special. We all deserve love and compassion.”

Email Ashland.news reporter Morgan Rothborne at morganr@ashland.news.

Related stories:

Service Notice: Celebration of life for Rick Bevel (June 14, 2024)

Now that it has an alternative, city to begin enforcing public camping policy on May 26 (May 18, 2023)

Ashland’s ‘night lawn’ camping area facing challenges (Dec. 11, 2023)

Homeless campers had ‘hair on fire,’ witnesses say (Jan. 16, 2024)

One night lawn fire victim recovering, while others remain hospitalized (Feb. 27, 2024)

More demand than shelter openings for homeless: ‘There’s no rest’ (March 4, 2024)

City staff: Help needed if city is to continue helping the homeless (April 16, 2024)

U.S. Supreme Court appears to lean toward Oregon city in complex homelessness case (April 24, 2024)