Lewis County Sirens.com

Defense attorney John Crowley talks with his client Ricky A. Riffe and his paralegal Richard Davis while they wait for the judge this afternoon

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Accused double kidnapper and murderer Ricky A. Riffe appeared in Lewis County Superior Court this afternoon as lawyers continue to hash out issues of so-called discovery, that is documents and such collected in the case that must be shared with the defense.

Seattle-based attorney John Crowley repeated basically what he’s said more than once before to the judge, he wants copies of all evidence turned over to him as the rules prescribe, not an invitation to make an appointment to go visit them at the evidence locker where the materials are stored.

Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer repeated what he said numerous times, he’s already turned over copies of everything they have.

The trial over the December 1985 shooting death of Ethel couple Ed and Wilhelmina Maurin is scheduled to begin the week of Oct. 7. Riffe, now 54, has been waiting in the Lewis County Jail for more than a year since his arrest in Alaska.

Today Crowley spoke of receiving low quality photocopies instead of reproductions of photos. He asked in his written motion for copies of the photo montages used by the sheriff’s office in which Riffe was not identified. They weren’t retained, he was told.

Crowley also asked for copies of whatever was shown to private investigators hired by former county commissioner Denny Hadaller – the grown son of one of the victims –  suggesting a criminal rule which prohibits such sharing.

Crowley suggested Judge Richard Brosey should consider setting a cut off date for any further evidence to be produced.

For example, he told the judge, after the sheriff’s office learned previously the trial was postponed, they sent off a ladies wristwatch for DNA testing. It was suspected whoever moved Wilhelmina “Minnie” Maurin out of the car may have left traces, he said. But he still doesn’t have a copy of the results report from the state crime lab, he said.

Judge Brosey inquired about the report, and about the findings.

Meyer consulted with Lewis County Sheriff’s Office detective Bruce Kimsey sitting in the courtroom behind him.

“If Mr., detective Kimsey is thinking of the right report, there’s nothing that links Mr. Riffe to that watch,” Meyer said.

Brosey ordered prosecutors to turn over various items, including a copy of the complete computer hard drive.

The next hearing is set for Sept. 20 at 1:30 p.m. and expected to take all afternoon.

Prosecutors contend Riffe and his since-deceased brother John G. Riffe abducted the couple and forced them to withdraw money from their bank in Chehalis before shooting them and dumping their bodies near Adna. Ed Maurin was 81 and his wife was 83.

The attorneys have previously said the trial could last three to four weeks. Brosey told the two lawyers today that as they query prospective jurors about their ability to serve, he may tell them it could last four to six weeks.

•••

For background, read “Maurin homicide: Riffe pleads not guilty, his attorney hints at proof” from Thursday August 23, 2012, here

Corey R. Morgan listens to attorneys and a judge in Lewis County Superior Court as he pleads guilty to murder and assault.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The man accused of staging a wreck on a Morton area logging road to cover up his girlfriend’s beating death admitted this morning they got into a fight and he hit her several times and strangled her.

Corey R. Morgan, 32, said in a written statement he and Brenda Bail had been drinking.

Morgan, who has been held in the Lewis County Jail since the July 19 incident, pleaded guilty today to increased charges.

He was initially charged with second-degree murder however prosecutors added a charge of second-degree assault.

Lewis County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Will Halstead spoke of additional finding from Bail’s autopsy. Choking her with his hands is what killed Bail, but she also had broken ribs on both sides, a broken nose and a large laceration on her lower lip, according to Halstead.

Other details of exactly where and when the assault occurred were not revealed during this morning’s court hearing.

Morgan, who is from Randle but lived in the Chehalis area with his 48-year-old girlfriend, had been sentenced two days before her death for an incident from last fall when he punched her in the face.

According to court documents, he told deputies they’d been out at the Market Street Pub in Chehalis and headed out to Forest Service Road 73 off state Route 508 to drink some more at a place that was special to the couple. It was about 1:30 a.m. when he walked to a home asking for help saying they’d been in a wreck fleeing three men who’d jumped them.

He told deputies the trio beat his girlfriend with a flashlight and a baton, but he fended them off, put her in his truck and sped down the logging road crashing into the ditch.

Bail was pronounced dead in the emergency room at 2:25 a.m.

Morgan said little at this morning’s hearing, but looked the judge in the eyes as he was questioned if he understood the consequences of his plea and spoke the words guilty twice.

He faces prison time of about 14 and a half years up to 23 years, according to Halstead. Prosecutors will ask for the high end of the standard sentencing range, Halstead said.

His admission came as part of a plea agreement. Halstead said he couldn’t say why Morgan chose to plead guilty, but speculated it had to do with the emerging evidence in the case.

Morgan’s defense attorney Don Blair had no comments to add outside the courtroom.

A sentencing date has not yet been scheduled but it will likely occur in the beginning of October, Halstead said.

•••

For background, read “Man suspected of killing fiancee had assaulted her before, lawyer says” from Tuesday July 23, 2013, here

A booklet like this one, along with holy water and a wooden crucifix with a handmade wooden base are among the items inside a straw-colored bag which was stolen from a vehicle at St. Mary Catholic Church.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CENTRALIA – At least two cars were broken into on Sunday in the parking lot of a Centralia church during the morning service.

In one case the window was smashed and a purse taken, but from the other, something perhaps more valuable was stolen.

It happened between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. during mass at St. Mary Catholic Church on North Washington Avenue.

Eighty-six-year-old Esther Haubrick for years has volunteered her time giving Holy Communion to shut-ins around town.

On Sundays, directly after church, she visits six individuals who are too sick to attend services.

“They wait for me, it’s kind of nice,” she said. “But I love doing it, it’s just my blessing.”

Yesterday, when she went to her car to re-stock her communion kit with the wafers, called the “host” for each of her people, the bag was gone, she said.

“I went back inside and said guess what, someone took my bag out of my car,” she said.

Haubrick didn’t wait around for police, she had to go explain to her people why she couldn’t give them communion, she said.

Her daughter-in-law Sherry Haubrick went to the area, near West Maple Street and took a look around the neighborhood and the cemetery there. She’s hoping the thieves after realizing there was no wallet, no money, tossed the tan colored straw bag in the bushes.

Besides the special white cloth to arrange her items on, the bag contained a copy of the little blue “Communion of the Sick” booklet which Esther Haubrick reads from, holy water, and a wooden cross with a wooden base her late husband made for her.

“He made a little block, so the crucifix would stand up,” she said. Her husband died in 1999.

“So, you know, things have a little meaning to you, sentimental meaning,” she said.

Esther Haubrick said she’s always parked in the same spot, and it hasn’t occurred to her to lock up her vehicle while it’s at a church.

“I’ve been doing this for 20, well I’m sure at least 15 years,” she said. “It’s the first time I’ve had any problems.”

She described the cross as about eight inches tall. The bag is perhaps a foot long and 10 inches tall with two wooden handles, she said.

Sherry Haubrick is hoping folks in the area might check their yards so the cross and its base can be returned to her mother-in-law.

“It just sickens me, while they were in church, someone’s there stealing their stuff,” she said.

Updated at 5:19 p.m.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The Secret Service was in Lewis County yesterday investigating a threat against the president.

Lewis County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Rob Snaza said a phone call was made about three weeks ago to a cell phone with a Washington state phone number belonging to a person who lives in Washington D.C.

Snaza said deputies worked with the federal agents yesterday locally to track down the phone that made the call. He described the content only as “statements made, with comments against the president.”

“We found it was juveniles who made a prank phone call,” Snaza said. From Napavine, he said.

Snaza released few details, other than the two boys live in the Napavine and Chehalis areas.

He said the case was turned over to the United States Secret Service, who had a talk with the youngsters. He said he didn’t believe they would be going to jail.

“I think they learned their lesson,” Snaza said.

Assistant Special Agent Bob Kierstead, at the Seattle field office of the Secret Service, confirmed this afternoon it didn’t appear any federal charges would come out of the case.

“Typically we don’t release a lot of information on ‘protective intelligence’ cases,” Kierstead said. “The Secret Service takes every threat seriously and we investigate every threat.”

He would not reveal the content of the phone call.

The federal law enforcement agency, besides its original mission as investigators of counterfeit currency, provides protection to the president, the vice president and certain other persons. It also has a electronic financial crimes task force, Kierstead said.

Asked if information about the phone call came through the previously secret gathering by federal authorities of millions of Americans phone records for national security, Kierstead said he can’t speak a lot about investigative techniques.

“It was pretty routine,” he said.

The information came from a private citizen to law enforcement who then contacted the Secret Service, he said. Snaza revealed the recipient of the call was a woman who has a spouse in the military.

Kierstead also declined to share how many threats against the president the agency investigates in a year.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

A grandmother was tied up with duct tape in a home invasion robbery north of Rochester early this morning while she was babysitting her grandchildren.

Deputies were called to the 15000 block of Case Road after the approximately 2 a.m. incident in which two safes were stolen, according to the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office.

“They break down the front door, both armed with guns and they demand to know where the money is,” sheriff’s Lt. Greg Elwin said this afternoon.

The 8-year-old girl woke up while the subjects were inside and they basically told her to stay in her room, Elwin said. The 3-year-old was sleeping, he said.

The older child helped untie her 64-year-old grandma and they called 911, he said.

“The twist on this whole thing is these people are involved in a co-op, they grow medial marijuana on the property,” Elwin said.

Elwin said it appears the home was targeted by someone who knew the owners were out of town. The parents were in Portland and returned home right away, he said.

Deputies don’t have a good description, as both males had their faces covered, he said.

Detectives conducted their scene investigation today and will be interviewing the residents tomorrow to learn more about what was taken, he said. The robbers dropped some jewelry and electronics on the way out, he said.

“We’re still trying to figure out what was in the safes,” he said. “Probably cash and product.”

He said the couple are operating a legal operation and supplying product to dispensaries.

Updated at 12:09 p.m.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

A Randle man was airlifted to a Portland hospital’s burn center after a fire consumed his home on the 100 block of Morris Road, just east of town last night.

It was an older single-wide mobile home with an addition built on to it, according to Lewis County Fire District 18 Chief Ed Lowe.

“It was fully engulfed in flames when we got there, and we went into defensive mode,” Lowe said.

Next door neighbor Linda Mullins said she was working at her computer when she heard Charles Baker outside cussing and hollering for someone to get a hose and help him. He was getting water in a bucket and went back inside his burning home, she said.

Smoke was billowing from the eaves and flames showing at one end, she said.

“We were standing outside screaming at him, get out, get out,” she said. “It took him awhile, we thought he was dead.”

Baker, 55, was burned mostly on his arms and legs, his hair was singed, Mullins said.

He was transported to Morton General Hospital, and then because of the weather, taken to a helicopter landing zone at Mossyrock High School and flown to Legacy Emanuel Medical Center in Portland.

Lewis County Fire District 14 Chief Jeff Jaques was told this morning Baker’s condition was serious but probably not life threatening. A hospital spokesperson however described Baker’s status as critical.

Baker lives there by himself.

The call came at 6:25 p.m. Fifteen members of the two fire departments – from Randle and Glenoma – battled the blaze, knocking it down by about 8 p.m., according to Lowe.

Mullins said after someone from the fire department got on scene, she grabbed her teenage son, her dog and two other neighbors and drove out of the tree-filled cove where three homes sit. She watched one tree go up in flames.

“I was afraid I was going to lose my house and everything,” she said.

All that remains of the 1977 mobile home is basically the floor and foundation, with a pile of burned material on top, Jaques said.

“Typically with these older mobile homes, of that vintage, they go up really fast,” Jaques said.

Lowe said he wasn’t involved in patient care, so he had little information about Baker’s injuries, except he understood he had burns on 20 percent of his body.

Fire investigator Jay Birley went out there last night and will be returning. It’s too early to know what caused the fire, Birley said.