Chehalis woman didn’t die from wreck, she was strangled, sheriff’s office says

July 22nd, 2013
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Corey Morgan’s wrecked truck on Forest Service Road 73 west of Morton. / Courtesy photo by Lewis County Sheriff’s Office

Updated at 1:26 p.m.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Detectives didn’t buy the story about how Corey Ross Morgan’s fiancee suffered her fatal injuries in a wreck on a logging road outside Morton and an autopsy indicated she died from strangulation, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.

Morgan, 32, of Randle, was arrested on Friday for second-degree murder.

The sheriff’s office said there is a history of domestic violence between Morgan and the victim, 48-year-old Brenda L. Bail of Chehalis.

Aid was called about 1:30 a.m. on Friday to Forest Service Road 73 after Morgan showed up at a house about two miles away and asked the resident to call 911 because he had wrecked his truck and Bail wasn’t breathing.

Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown said apparently when aid arrived, Bail had no pulse, they began CPR and transported her to the hospital.

Detectives became suspicious of Morgan’s detailed story of what occurred, according to the sheriff’s office.

He said the couple was visiting their “special spot” when three men jumped them, according to the sheriff’s office. Morgan also told detectives they beat Bail badly but he was able to “thwart” them off because he knew Tae-Kwon-Do, the sheriff’s office said.

He said he put her in his truck and as he sped down the logging road, he lost control and crashed into an embankment, causing his fiancee to hit her head on the dashboard.

The sheriff’s office says Morgan named Roger Etter of Kelso as one of the attackers, but Etter contacted law enforcement over the weekend and has been cleared of any involvement.

Brown said there were no indications Morgan was hurt and even the state patrol didn’t see the collision as one with enough impact to have caused major injuries to Bail.

Brown states Bail was dead at the wreck scene, even though she was transported by ambulance to the hospital. Detectives began their investigation at Morton General Hospital and don’t know if Bail died before the wreck or while Morgan had gone for help, according to Brown.

An autopsy conducted on Friday showed Bail died from asphyxiation caused by manual strangulation, with contributing factors of blunt force trauma to her face, according to authorities. The sheriff’s office says they don’t believe she was injured from the wreck.

Morgan is scheduled to go before a judge this afternoon in Lewis County Superior Court where his bail amount will be set.

 

News brief: Two sent to prison for Peppertree Motel assault

July 21st, 2013

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The two men charged in last month’s beating and stun gun attack of a 32-year-old Chehalis man who thought he was with them to buy drugs in Centralia have both been sentenced after plea deals were made.

Joseph M. Hanks, 30, of Rochester, pleaded guilty on Thursday to felony harassment and third-degree assault. Elijah M. Garibay, 25, from Elma, pleaded guilty the week before to second-degree assault and made a so-called Alford plea to intimidating a witness.

The reason for the modified plea for intimidation is Garibay said he was high and just really didn’t remember the reason for what he was doing, Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Shane O’Rourke said.

The men were arrested the night of June 18 after fleeing the assault which occurred inside Hanks’ car outside the Peppertree Motel.

The victim told police Hanks picked him up to go buy some heroin, and then unexpectedly picked up two other men.

Charging documents state once they arrived at the motel, they called the victim a snitch and Garibay from the backseat put his arm around the victim’s throat and choked him and then zapped him with a Taser; Hanks punched him in the face.

O’Rourke was convinced it was simply a beating in the guise of a drug deal. The victim had testified the week before against a man subsequently convicted of burglarizing a Napavine bar, although O’Rourke said he felt it might be related to some other individuals.

O’Rourke never acknowledged if Thomas Pennypacker was a confidential informant.

Pennypacker’s $60 was handed over to a third unidentified man who walked away from the vehicle and has not been named or found, according to O’Rourke.

Garibay and Hanks each ended up with sentences of 27 months in prison.
•••

For background, read “Prosecutor: Intimidation appears to be motive behind attack on man at Centralia motel” from Thursday June 20, 2013, here

Sharyn’s Sirens: Daily police and fire roundup

July 21st, 2013

Updated at 9:18 p.m.

NOT SPIDERMAN MATERIAL

• A 26-year-old Chehalis man lost a game of hide-and-seek with Centralia police early yesterday morning. It happened in the area of the 400 block of West Main Street. Officers called about 2:30 a.m. to a dispute report Trevor D. Chase ran away but was tracked by officers until he was cornered in a yard. Chase reportedly climbed on top of a garage and tore away sheet metal to get inside, but eventually returned to the roof, according to the Centralia Police Department. Chase was removed from the roof and booked into the Lewis County Jail for second-degree burglary, according to police.

THEFT

• Centralia police took a report of a burglary to a storage building at the 1400 block of South Gold Street on Friday.

DRUGS

• Centralia police arrested a 35-year-old man about 3:30 a.m. today for several warrants and possession of methamphetamine at the 700 block of Harrison Avenue. Jason A. Landry, a Centralia resident, was booked into the Lewis County Jail, according to the Centralia Police Department.

• A 45-year-old Centralia man as arrested for possession of heroin about 10 p.m. on Friday after contact with an officer at the 1300 block of Kulien Street in Centralia. Paul A. Siskin  was booked into the Lewis County Jail, according to the Centralia Police Department.

WRECKS

• A 20-year-old Vancouver woman was taken to Providence Centralia Hospital after a single-vehicle wreck this afternoon on Interstate 5 near the U.S. Highway 12-Avery Road interchange. Troopers called about 3:50 p.m. to the southbound lanes found a Ford Expedition on its top, according to the Washington State Patrol. The driver, Jerry E. Brower, 45, of Vancouver, changed lanes at about the same time as did a vehicle in front of him and when it braked, Brower swerved to avoid hitting it, according to the state patrol. He and a 13-year-old boy in the vehicle were reportedly uninjured. Madison Brower, 20, was taken to the hospital with unspecified injures, according to the investigating trooper.

• Two separate motorcyclists were taken to Providence Centralia Hospital last night after one of them rear ended a 1928 Chevrolet Roadster which slowed to make a turn and the other ran into the first motorcycle. It happened on state Route 505 outside Toledo about 10:45 p.m., according to Washington State Patrol. The Roadster, carrying Lana M. Brundage, 32, and Douglas G. Eckstrom, 26, both from Toledo, was damaged but still drivable, according to the state patrol. Taken to the hospital were Kirk P. Knutson, 42, Fife, and James V. Peterson, 48, Tacoma, according to the investigating trooper.

AND MORE

• And as usual, other incidents such as arrests for warrants, driving with suspended license, violations of protection orders; responses for theft, collision on Harrison Avenue … and more.

Man booked for Lewis County murder

July 20th, 2013

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A man was booked into the Lewis County Jail  yesterday for murder, however, the sheriff’s office won’t say anything about what homicide he is linked to.

Corey Ross Morgan was arrested for second-degree murder and booked at 3 p.m., according to jail’s roster.

A spokesperson for the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office would not say if Morgan is connected with the suspicious death of 48-year-old Chehalis woman under investigation since early Friday morning or if detectives are working on another death in the county.

Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown said yesterday morning a man went to a house on the 5900 block of state Route 508 west of Morton and told a woman there he and his fiance had gotten in a wreck on Forest Service Road 73, about two miles away, and she wasn’t breathing.

Aid found her dead when they arrived at the collision, according to Brown.

Detectives were questioning the un-named 32-year-old Randle man who said the couple had been “jumped” and the wreck happened while they were trying to get away, according to Brown. The sheriff’s office yesterday also said they were looking for 39-year-old Roger Etter, of Kelso, because he might have information in the case.

Lewis County Coroner Warren McLeod said an autopsy was conducted yesterday and he has determined the cause and manner of death for the woman, but he is withholding that information at the request of the sheriff’s office.

He also is not yet releasing her name as he has not confirmed who she is, he said. McLeod said he has tentatively identified her and notified the family of that person.

Brown indicated last night the sheriff’s office will release no further information on the man booked into the jail until after representatives from its office, the prosecutor’s office and the coroner’s office have a chance to get together for “briefing.”

That won’t happen before Monday, according to Brown.

News brief: Four escape mobile home fire in Rochester

July 20th, 2013
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Crews extinguish a blaze that destroyed Rochester mobile home, shop. / Courtesy photo by West Thurston Regional Fire Authority.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

Investigators are looking into the cause of a fire in a Rochester mobile home park that displaced a father, his young daughter and two other adults early this morning.

“One of the occupants woke up and saw a glow outside,” Chief Robert Scott said. “He alerted everyone, got everyone up and by then the smoke was in their hallway.”

Crews responding just before 5 a.m. to the area at 185th Avenue Southwest near Marble Street found the single-wide mobile home fully involved in flames, according to West Thurston Regional Fire Authority.

The fire spread, also destroying a shop and heavily damaging a carport and two vehicles parked there, according to Scott.

The child, who Scott said is 4 or 5 years old, was evaluated for smoke inhalation. Nobody else was injured.

The cause is as yet unknown, but the investigation is focusing on a point of origin outside the structure, Scott said.

A total of 25 firefighters from five departments responded.

Scott said it was in the Tanglewood Mobile Home Park. An adjacent mobile home less than 20 feet away sustained some damage from the fire as well, he said.

News brief: Campfire blamed for hillside blaze north of Cinebar

July 19th, 2013

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

Someone forgot about Smokey Bear.

When 911 calls alerted firefighters to a glow in the Cinebar Hills, members of Lewis County Fire District 8 set out in the dark up a logging road and discovered a wildfire covering about two acres on extremely steep terrain.

And, they found the remnants of a campfire someone didn’t fully extinguish, according to Chief Duran McDaniel.

What began about midnight on Tuesday didn’t end for another 16 hours, he said.

The scene was about a mile up Forest Service Road 71, on the way to Newaukum Lake, he said. The small area surrounded by forest had been logged about four years earlier, and the campfire had been built some 10 feet away from a well-seasoned slash pile in what McDaniel called a landing zone.

“It appears people have using the area for target practice,” he said.

Firefighters did what they could to contain what was burning on Weyerhaeuser property while they waited for crews from the state Department of Natural Resources, McDaniel said.

DNR summoned three “convict crews” and three engine teams, he said.  Members of the fire district assisted by hauling tanker trucks of water through the night and into the following afternoon.

The chief said the DNR investigation indicated the campfire – without even a ring of rocks surrounding it – was probably used sometime since Sunday.

A burn ban goes into effect on Monday in Lewis County because of how much the vegetation has dried out. Exceptions are made for recreational fires in approved receptacles.

A similar burn ban statewide began July 1 on all forestland and other property that is protected by the state Department of Natural Resources.

Sharyn’s Sirens: Daily police and fire roundup

July 19th, 2013

Updated at 5:45 p.m.

MISSING TRUCK FOUND VIA GPS UNIT

• A 28-year-old Chehalis resident called 911 yesterday morning after he discovered  both his Dodge pickup truck and an acquaintance had disappeared from his apartment on the 100 block of North Market Boulevard. The vehicle had a GPS device in it which helped law enforcement locate it and the woman on Anderson Road at the Chehalis Reservation, according to the Chehalis Police Department. Oliva Flores-Purser, 20, of Centralia, was arrested and booked for possession of a stolen vehicle, according to Officer Linda Bailey.

GUNS, PICKUP STOLEN FROM CURTIS

• A second person was arrested yesterday in connection with a burglary reported on June 30 at the 200 block of Hubbard Road in Curtis in which several firearms, power tools, jewelry, financial documents and a Dodge pickup truck were stolen, the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office reported this morning. Marcus T. Almanzor, 41, was picked up at his home in Olympia, according to the sheriff’s office. Twenty-nine-year-old Christopher Lopez, a homeless person, was arrested on Friday, Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown said. Some of the stolen goods have already been recovered from residences in Chehalis and Rochester, including the truck, Brown said. Still missing are an SKS rifle, a Ruger 22 pistol and four hunting rifles, she said. The case remains under investigation and other arrests are expected, according to Brown.

BREAK-IN IN CENTRALIA

• Centralia police were called yesterday to an apartment which was broken into on the 200 block of North Rock Street after its tenant was evicted. Police say they do have a suspect and are investigating. It wasn’t noted if anything was taken.

CAR VERSUS BIKE

• Centralia police responded to a collision in which a passenger vehicle struck a small utility trailer being pulled behind a bicycle on the 1300 block of North Pearl Street just before noon yesterday. Police said the bicyclist suffered a minor injury.

HOUSE FIRE IN SALKUM

• A Salkum woman and her pets escaped without injury when a kitchen fire broke out at her home on Raydell Drive last night. Firefighters called about 7:15 p.m. contained the blaze to the kitchen, but they had to tear out part of the ceiling, according to Lewis County Fire District 8. She was in the living room reading when her refrigerator caught on fire, according to Chief Duran McDaniel. “I don’t know how many cats she had, 11 or so, but they all seemed to make it out okay,” McDaniel said. The home had smoke damage throughout but is fixable, he said.

FROM THE COURTHOUSE

• The now former treasurer for the Morton Athletic Association appeared before a judge today in Lewis County Superior Court who set her bail with a $5,000 unsecured bond. Sarah J. Erskine, 34, of Morton, was responding to a summons for her charge of first-degree theft. Prosecutors allege in court documents Erskine misappropriated M.A.A. funds that were kept in the Morton bank where she worked. She no longer works there. Defense attorney Bob Schroeter told the judge Erskine plans to hire Centralia attorney Don Blair and requested her arraignment be scheduled for Aug. 1. Judge Nelson Hunt agreed and ordered her to visit the jail for a so-called administrative booking – get fingerprinted and get her photograph taken – before the hearing.

WRECKS

• A 34-year-old woman and a 7-year-old boy from Beaverton, Ore. were evaluated by medics after a rollover wreck on state Route 7 just north of Morton yesterday. Troopers called about 12:30 p.m. report Cory A. Maronay was traveling northbound when she lost control of her 2004 Kia Optima, according to the Washington State Patrol. She was taken to Morton General Hospital where she was treated and released, according to authorities. Both had been wearing seatbelt restraints, the vehicle was described as totaled, according to the patrol.

• A couple in their 70s traveling from Massachusetts on a tour of the country were struck by a pickup truck as they headed to see Mount St. Helens yesterday. Both vehicles were totaled and blocked the 50 mph undivided highway for a period of time, according to responders. It happened about 11:40 a.m. just east of Toledo on state Route 505, according to the Washington State Patrol. Injuries were all minor, according to a spokesperson for the state patrol. Troopers reported Daniel W. Fultz, 49, of Chehalis, was pulling a flatbed trailer loaded with a car behind his pickup truck when the trailer began to fishtail and he crossed the centerline. All the occupants declined treatment, but as the couple was at the fire station making arrangements for a rental car, firefighters talked him into going to the hospital to be checked out, according to Lewis County Fire District 2. David Firmin, 76, Worster, Mass., was transported to St. John Medical Center in Longview, Chief Grant Wiltbank said. A firefighter took his traveling companion, Ruth A. Roginsky, 73, from Port Charlotte, Fla., to meet him there, according to Wiltbank.

AND MORE

• And as usual, other incidents such as arrests for warrants, driving with suspended license; responses for misdemeanor theft, suspected fraud, suspicious circumstances, parking lot fender bender  … and more.

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Responders assist at a two-vehicle collision near Toledo. / Courtesy photo by Washington State Patrol