A convicted murderer’s petition to request DNA testing in the 2019 stabbing death of a California woman at a Medford motel was approved by a Jackson County Circuit Court judge late last week.

Judge Sara Collins ruled Friday that the petition filed Jan. 19 by Justin Lee Graham-Yaeger, 37, met the burden for court approval. The judge’s green light gave Byron Lichstein, a senior staff attorney with the Portland-based Forensic Justice Project, the ability to collect information necessary to decide whether DNA testing should be conducted.

Lichstein did not want to comment extensively on the case, but he wrote in an email that Friday’s hearing was merely a formality, letting the court know Graham-Yaeger had obtained a lawyer and Lichstein would collect information in his client’s case.

“My job now is to review the case and see if there’s a basis for requesting further testing,” Lichstein wrote. “That’s what I’ll be doing once I get the documents.”

If Lichstein finds DNA testing is warranted, he would would make a request to move forward on it to the court, which must approve any testing before it can happen.

Lichstein said another hearing for Graham-Yaeger’s petition likely won’t be for another few months, and he has no further comment at this time. 

Graham-Yaeger’s petition states that “DNA evidence could exist and is related to the investigation or prosecution that resulted in the judgment of conviction.” Graham-Yaeger did not specify what evidence he was referring to.

Graham-Yaeger was convicted Feb. 10, 2021, of second-degree murder for the death Sierra Bree Clemens, 23, of Grass Valley, California, on May 3, 2019, at the Tiki Lodge, 509 N. Riverside Ave., Medford. Graham-Yaeger and Clemens were staying at the motel, and he stabbed her several times, according to previous news reports.

Other reports say when police arrived and found Clemens deceased in the bathroom, they heard someone later determined to be Graham-Yaeger escape out the bathroom window. Graham-Yaeger was found in a Tiki Lodge dumpster with a bite wound he sustained from a K-9 that had searched the property.

Graham-Yaeger did not go to trial. He pleaded guilty Feb. 10, 2021, and received a sentence of 25 years to life in prison. Graham-Yaeger is housed at the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution in Pendleton. Graham-Yaeger was also ordered to pay for the victim’s funeral expenses.