YAKIMA, Wash – A man who confessed to murder during an interview with KHQ has now pleaded guilty. Donovan Thomas Culps pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to one count of second-degree murder on Feb. 18 as part of a plea agreement. During an interview with KHQ’s Hayley Guenthner in 2017 about a separate case, Culps confessed to killing a Yakima man he believed murdered the mother of his child, Felina Metsker.
“I did it out of love,” Culps told Guenthner. “I did it out of revenge.”
Metsker vanished back in 2016 and her remains were recovered weeks later near White Swan on the Yakama Indian Reservation. Culps told Guenthner that he knew the killer and had been shown proof to substantiate the claim.
“He took me out to her trailer and she was laying there dead with a blanket over her,” Culps said. “Blood everywhere,” Culps said he wanted to hurt the man right then and there, but said fears for the safety of the child he and Metsker shared initially got in the way. But after ensuring the child was safe, he said he “set out to do what a man should do.”
“I met him at the water tower near Medicine Valley,” he said. “I stabbed him [three times]. I slit his throat. As soon as he got there, he seen it in my eyes. He got scared. I was there for one thing and one thing only.”
Culps told Guenthner he left the man’s body out in the elements, similar to the way he believed the man disposed of Metsker. Guenthner asked Culps if the man ever told him why he allegedly killed Metsker.
“I didn’t give him the chance to say anything,” Culps responded.
