The case against Tyler Grant Stevens, 23, is moving forward. Stevens is accused of killing Atascadero resident Todd Joseph Pinion, whose disappearance and death drew widespread attention across the Central Coast.
Pinion was reported missing in October 2024, before his remains were later found near Tassajara Creek Road.
“I hope with this, there will be the appropriate closure to where it's like, ‘Yeah, you know what? Todd’s still with us,’” Pinion’s close friend Tyler Bishop said.
It’s been nearly two years since Bishop lost his good friend, 34-year-old Todd Pinion.
Bishop, who is a police officer in Colorado, said when he heard Pinion was missing, he contacted his helicopter pilot friend and they were both going to head to the area to help look for Pinion, until the news came.
“She said, ‘Have you gotten ahold of the family yet?’ And I said, ‘No.’ And she's like, ‘Unfortunately, we found him, and he's passed away.’ And yeah, just a really hard time,” Bishop said.
Pinion had last been seen in Atascadero on the morning of Oct. 23, 2024, and was reported missing.
On Nov. 2, authorities located Pinion’s body in a remote area near Tassajara Creek Road.
“I was praying that Todd maybe had, like, a hiking accident or something, and we could get to him and find him,” said Bishop. “I guess I'm still in disbelief, right? It's so senseless, so senseless.”
Stevens was taken into custody and booked into jail on charges of homicide.
At Stevens’ Dec. 10 preliminary hearing last year, one piece of evidence was a surveillance video showing Pinion, Stevens and another man at a Motel 6 in Atascadero on Oct. 22, 2024, leading into the early hours of Oct. 23, around the time Pinion was killed.
An investigator with San Luis Obispo County who interviewed Stevens testified that he confessed to the murder and told him the killing was a “reaction” and that he was upset at some"gay stuff” Pinion was saying.
Detectives also found the alleged murder weapon, a knife, that was in a safe in a locker.
“When you're traveling around picking up people at Motel 6 in the middle of the night, I can't imagine it's for anything good,” Bishop said. “I mean, clearly he has some demons that he's battling, but there's no justification that night to take away my friend.”
Stevens’ jury trial was finally scheduled for April 27, 2027.
For resident George Sullivan, who lives right by where Pinion’s body was found nearly two years ago in Santa Margarita, he feels justice is long overdue.
“I don’t think that there’s anything that can settle the score, but we certainly don’t want to condone that kind of behavior, and people who are bullies, cruel, need to be put away for a while, if not executed,” Sullivan said.
As for Pinion’s close friend, he hopes the upcoming trial doesn’t take the focus away from the great human being he says Pinion was.
“As this trial progresses, I mean, there's probably going to be things good and bad on both sides, but, I mean, the people that know Todd should continue to spread who he was, and he was a light,” he said.
KSBY reached out to both of Stevens' attorneys listed on court documents. One said he is no longer representing Stevens, and the other attorney said she was unavailable for an interview.
