Lewis County Sirens.com

Rescuers tend to injured base jumper below Tower Rock outside of Randle. / Courtesy photo by Lewis County Fire District 14

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

A 38-year-old Portland man was seriously injured when his parachute didn’t fully deploy as he base jumped from a 3,300 foot tall rock in the forest miles south of Randle yesterday.

A witness saw the man hit the rock wall several times on the way down before disappearing into the timber, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.

The Randle Fire Department was called about 11:45 a.m., hiked the steep terrain and reached the patent by 2 p.m., according to Fire Chief Jeff Jaques.

His two friends had hiked to the base of the mountain where they found him bleeding, with multiple fractures to his lower legs, the sheriff’s office reports. One had hiked out to call 911.

Jaques reports the patient was conscious.

A U.S. Navy helicopter from Whidbey Island responded to hoist the jumper, according to the sheriff’s office.

He was flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

Jaques reports his injuries were serious. Sheriff’s Office Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown reports he was critical.

Tower Rock is located in the Cispus Valley near the Cispus Environmental Center.

The rescue effort included members of Lewis County Fire District 14, Lewis County Search and Rescue, Lewis County Sheriff’s Office, Airlift Northwest personnel and two volunteers from the CIspus Learning Center.

Tower Rock south of Randle. / Courtesy photo by Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.

Updated

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The Napavine woman accused of being now-convicted drug dealer Forrest Amos’s “right hand woman” has settled her case with prosecutors and been ordered to get an evaluation and treatment for substance abuse.

Jennifer Lantau, now, 30, was charged in May of last year with dealing in Oxycodone, and became an informant for police, according to court documents. She’s the individual prosecutors contended assisted Amos to continue his drug trafficking while he was behind bars.

“She was, at his request and on her own behalf to fund her prescription pill addiction,” Lewis County prosecutors wrote in charging documents.

Lantau was charged with three counts of delivery of Oxycodone occurring in the spring of 2013, one count of attempted possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver, as well as possession of marijuana with intent to deliver and straight possession of marijuana and originally held on $100,000 bail.

However, by last October, Lantau agreed to become a “cooperating witness” against her boyfriend.

Amos was sentenced last month to 12 years behind bars for a multitude of offenses based on a lengthy investigation by Centralia police. Law enforcement estimated that in 2011 when he was aggressively dealing Oxycodone, that he was the main supplier of the synthetic opiate within Lewis County, possessing and dealing thousands of pills a month.

Lantau didn’t have to testify against Amos, as instead of a trial, he entered into a plea agreement. He was sentenced on Aug. 20.

Lantau appeared in Lewis County Superior Court last week to be sentenced for for lesser charges, just two counts of possession of Oxycodone, and one count of felony possession of marijuana. She was given 36 days in jail for each and given credit for the time already served, according to court documents.

She was free to leave after Wednesday’s hearing, but will remain under the supervision of the state Department of Corrections for 12 months, according to Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer.

“The fact that we had her as a cooperating witness is part of what helped us settle with Forrest Amos,” Meyer said.
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For background, read “News brief: Local oxycodone dealer goes back to prison” from Thursday Aug. 21, 2014, here

Ricky A. Riffe, in red, waits as his lawyer John Crowley and Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer finish up paperwork during hearing in Lewis County Superior Court.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The former Mossyrock man who is imprisoned for more than a century in a long unsolved Lewis County double murder struck a plea deal in a second old case that was revived while he awaited trial last year.

Ricky A. Riffe was convicted last autumn in the 1985 kidnapping, robbery and shotgun deaths of an elderly Ethel couple, Ed and Minnie Maurin. Just months after he was brought from his home in Alaska, prosecutors filed charges Riffe had sexually abused his 9-year-old step-daughter in the mid-1980s.

Had he lost in the trial that was to begin next week in Lewis County Superior Court, he would have faced a mandatory minimum of 20 years for the alleged statutory rape and indecent liberties, according to his lawyer.

Last week, defense attorney John Crowley said, he put together a proposal to help both sides get what they wanted in the case, and then called Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer .

Prosecutors dropped the rape charge and the now-55-year-old made an Alford plea yesterday, not admitting any guilt. The court hearing was very short.

“He feels very strongly he would not get a fair trial,” Crowley said yesterday outside the courtroom. “He had no hope of a fair trial, period.”

His client believes he will win his appeal in the Maurin case, and then will have the opportunity to return to court for a re-sentencing in the sex case, where he would face a standard sentencing range of just 12 to 14 months, because he would have fewer criminal history “points”, his lawyer said.

Meyer was pleased with the arrangement as well, noting it wouldn’t have been an easy case to take to trial, relying on witness memories from events of 30 years ago.

“We look at this as a win, win,” Meyer said. “Because it gives finality to the case.”

The victim was in agreement with the deal, he said.

A sentencing date has not yet been scheduled, as the parties have to wait for a pre-sentence review from the state Department of Corrections who will give their recommendation of how much time he should serve.

As part of the deal, Riffe gave up his right to appeal yesterday’s conviction. He also gave up his rights to seek any further reviews or appeals of his convictions in the Maurin case, beyond the appeal that is already underway, Meyer said.

He was convicted by a jury last Nov. 18, as charged, of two counts each of first-degree murder, kidnapping and robbery as well as one count of burglary. All were first-degree. The jury also found the crimes involved particularly vulnerable victims, deliberate cruelty and that the defendant showed an egregious lack of remorse. The judge gave him the longest sentence allowable under the law, 1,234 months.

Prosecutors persuaded the jury that he at the very least was an accomplice to their other longtime suspect who was deceased, his younger brother John Gregory Riffe.

Riffe is serving his sentence at Walla Walla State Penitentiary.

He maintains he’s innocent in both cases.

“He specifically said he didn’t do it,” Crowley said yesterday afternoon of the child sex crime.

Crowley said not only was it investigated back when the allegations were first made and the county prosecutor declined to file charges, but that Riffe willingly took a lie detector test and passed.

The Seattle-based defense attorney contended the sexual abuse charges were a ploy to smear his client, in a small community that was closely following the news of the coming double murder trial.

When Riffe is sentenced, he faces a standard sentencing range of 57 months to 75 months.

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For background, read:

• “Attorneys dispute statute of limitations rules on surprise child sex charge for Maurin double murder defendant” from Saturday February 23, 2013, here

• “Riffe maintains innocence in face of sentence of more than a century for Maurin murders” from Tuesday December 3, 2013, here

Smoke billows above the 700 block of Tucker Road, northeast of Toledo. / Courtesy photo by Julie Broussard

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

A Toledo area home went up in flames yesterday evening but a young couple and their dog escaped safely.

The fire appeared to have started inside the attached metal carport at the modular home on the 700 block of Tucker Road, according to Lewis County Fire District 2.

“They got out of the house, it very quickly got inside the house,” FIre Chief Grant Wiltbank said.

Five fire departments responded to the approximately 6:15 p.m. call about five miles northeast of town, according to Wiltbank.

The chief said he lives a couple miles away across the river and when the call came out, he looked that direction and spotted a column of black smoke already probably two hundred feet into the sky.

Arriving crews quickly contained the blaze but remained on the scene for nearly three hours extinguishing hot spots.

Wiltbank said the home and its contents are a total loss. One cat was unaccounted for and presumed lost in the fire, he said.

They thought the lost their dog, but it apparently made it out by itself, and turned up sitting in a field, he said.

The Red Cross responded to offer assistance. The fire’s cause is still under investigation.

Joshua Q. Keele sits at the defense table during his bail hearing in Lewis County Superior Court.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A former Salkum man has been arrested and charged with possession of child pornography following a lengthy investigation that started with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s attempts to identify the subjects in a homemade video they intercepted in 2012.

The male wearing a maroon shirt with a shark logo in the video was identified as 38-year-old Joshua Q. Keele, by Keele’s ex-wife; and the male toddler has been identified by a former babysitter and roommate as Keele’s son, according to charging documents.

Since April, when a Lewis County Sheriff’s Office detective received information from the FBI that Keele was suspected of creating and disseminating child pornography, the detective has been collecting computers and other electronic devices and accessories from Keele’s household, while an FBI agent seized his mobile phone, according to the documents.

On Tuesday, detective Duke Adkisson received confirmation at least one of the images, of a young girl, was identified by law enforcement as child pornography. Other confiscated images are still under analysis.

FBI: Wanted, Seeking information, endangered child alert program

On Thursday, the detective contacted Keele near his current home in Port Hadlock and arrested him for first-degree possession of depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

The charge, filed today in Lewis County Superior Court doesn’t mention any federal charges and does not include any charge of creating or distributing child porn.

Keele was brought before a judge in Lewis County Superior Court this afternoon where he was ordered held on $75,000 bail.

In asking for the high bail, Lewis County Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecutor Brad Meagher pointed out Keele has previous felony convictions, including third-degree child molestation from 1998.

Defense attorney Bob Schroeter asked for much lower bail, noting to the judge no minor children reside with Keele and that he is currently undergoing outpatient treatment in Port Townsend.

The seven-page affidavit of probable cause includes statements from individuals that allege Keele was obsessed with methamphetamine and previously made sex videotapes with women in his life. A Panasonic camcorder and an 8 mm tape were among the items seized.

His former girlfriend who is now his wife attended today’s brief hearing and is described as cooperating with the detective as he obtained evidence.

Judge James Lawler appointed Centralia attorney Don Blair to represent Keele.

His arraignment is scheduled for next Thursday.

Updated at 1:09 p.m.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Deputies last night confirmed that a 51-year-old Winlock man never returned home after an outing at Lake Mayfield yesterday and he is presumed drowned.

The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office was among those who responded to an approximately 2:30 p.m. call that the man didn’t resurface after jumping with a friend from a bluff at Ike Kinswa State Park.

As deputies came to understand the incident had occurred around the noon hour, the search and rescue efforts began to wind down.

The friend, a 43-year-old man who lives in the Mossyrock area, said he went home and then called 911, though there was a significant time delay, Undersheriff Rob Snaza said.

His reason for waiting to call wasn’t clear at all, according to Snaza.

The Winlock man’s name has not been released.

Snaza said there are no plans to put a dive team in the water but they’ll talk today to decide how to proceed.

The lake is more than 100 feet deep in that area, he said.

“It’s hard to say when we’ll see something, because of the temperature of the water and how deep it is,” he said this morning.

Snaza said deputies came to learn the two men had been jumping from the Winston Creek side of the lake on the southern end earlier and decided to go to the cliff near the boat launch at Ike Kinswa, at the northwest corner of the lake. He said they had been drinking, Snaza said.

The Winlock man had never jumped from that spot, he said.

“The RP (reporting party) jumps in first, he’d done it there before, and he pops up and starts swimming to shore,” Snaza said. “Then he hears his buddy jump and doesn’t see his buddy pop up.”

He spent about an hour searching the lake bank for his friend and then went home, according to the sheriff’s office.

The cliff is described as 30 feet above the water.

Ike Kinswa is off state Route 122, which runs around the north side of the lake.

Ten firefighters from Salkum and Mossyrock responded to the afternoon call and scoured the banks for about an hour, according to Lewis County Fire District 8 Chief Duran McDaniel.

Both the sheriff’s office and the Mossyrock Fire Department launched their boats, with members of the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office water rescue team responding as well.

Snaza said they finished their work on the water about 4:30 p.m., but deputies continued into the evening investigating and checking with the 51-year-old’s friends and family.

“We confirmed he was not at home,” Snaza said.

No formal search or recovery attempts are underway today, according to Snaza, but deputies, the state park ranger and the Mossyrock Fire Department will continue to check the area.

Deputies haven’t found anyone other than the Mossyrock man who witnessed the two jumping from the bluff, but concluded it happened between 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., according to Snaza.

Snaza, a longtime sergeant with the sheriff’s office was promoted to undersheriff as of Monday, filling the vacancy created when Chief of Staff Steven Walton in July took a position as Lewis County budget administrator. Snaza is one of two individuals running for sheriff in November’s election.

Updated at 9:15 a.m.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

A man was badly burned in Napavine this morning from an explosion and fire inside a camper in the driveway of a house.

Firefighters called just before 6 a.m. to the 200 block of West Branch Street found a male patient about 60 years old with burns to approximately 40 percent of his body, according to Lewis County Fire District 5.

The fire itself stayed inside the camper and was quickly extinguished, according to Firefighter-EMT Maria Kennedy. Neither the trees above it or the house which was only about 10 feet away caught fire, she said. The truck it was mounted upon even seemed undamaged, she said.

Kennedy, who was on the first arriving engine, said she didn’t yet know the cause.

“We believe a possible gas leak, but we put all our resources into patient care and had District 6 put the fire out,” she said. “The scary thing about burns, is your skin is your most important organ.”

Kennedy said she didn’t know if the man was visiting or lived there, or what he was doing inside the camper when it happened, but said residents at the home had gotten him to a safe part of the yard and were caring for him where crews arrived.

He was treated at the scene by medics and then airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, she said.
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CORRECTION: This news story has been updated to reflect the victim had been inside the camper when it caught fire.