Lewis County Sirens.com

Workers begin boarding up the west side of the apartment building that burned yesterday morning on the corner of Northwest West Street and Rhode Island.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – It could be awhile before the cause of yesterday’s fire that woke the occupants of a four-unit apartment building and an adjacent house in Chehalis can be determined.

Fire Chief Jim Walkowski said investigators can’t go back inside the bigger structure until its deemed safe to enter.

Both buildings were heavily damaged, he said.

He estimated the loss to the structure and contents was as much as $400,000 to the older apartments on the corner of Northwest West Street and Rhode Island. The house to its west may be fixable, he said.

Walkowski was at the scene of the 4:30 a.m. blaze again late yesterday afternoon as workers boarded up the windows.

The northwest corner of the apartment building suffered the greatest damage, he said. The exterior on the west side is completely charred.

He said he wasn’t sure what the residents might be able to recover of any belongings left undestroyed.

“Probably not a lot,” he said. “Once it’s stable, we’ll see what we can salvage.”

Ten adults were displaced by the fire that appears to have begun in the aging apartment building and spread to the one and half story house next door. A missing cat had not yet been found by yesterday afternoon.

The local Red Cross is providing emergency shelter, food and clothing to the occupants.

Nearly 50 firefighters from eight departments battled the blaze. A 55-year-old man who lives there was hospitalized briefly for smoke inhalation.

The fire chief said he hasn’t yet determined if there were operational smoke detectors, and got a report none activated inside the apartments. He was told by the owner they were in place, he said.

Walkowski said one of the challenges was the type of construction back in 1918 or 1924 when the big building was new. Once any flames got into a wall, there was nothing in place to stop them from spreading all around inside each wall, he said.

The other big issue was a natural gas line on the west side of the building broke, so the gas fueled a flame that was pointed directly at the neighboring house, he said.

It wasn’t an option to just extinguish the fire around the line, as then the gas would still be coming out, which would have been dangerous, he said.

It was about an hour and half before the gas company could get it shut off, he said. It involved digging and more complexity than just turning a valve, he said.

Walkowski said he’s heard the “hub bub” about the fire igniting from a meat smoker or related to explosions, but said it’s too early to know the cause.

The owner of the apartment building is being asked to hire a structural engineer to certify it is safe to enter, and then fire investigators will be able to conduct their examination, he said.
•••

For background, read “Blaze at Chehalis apartment building spreads to neighboring house” from Tuesday July 16, 2013 at 8:53 a.m., here

Flames shoot from a Chehalis apartment building on Northwest West Street and Rhode Island. / Courtesy photo by Lorena Perez

Updated at 10:09 a.m.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A three alarm fire chased several people from a Chehalis apartment building and a house next door early this morning with one man hospitalized for smoke inhalation.

Firefighters are still on the scene at Northwest West Street and Rhode Island, around the corner from Kaija’s garden store.

The walls of the older two-story wood structure still stand, but ladder trucks continued to pour water on its roof where flames could be seen.

The blaze broke out around 4:30 a.m. At 8 a.m., Fire Chief Walkowski said the best they could figure was eight individuals were in the building and two others in the one and half story house to its west.

Fifty-five-year-old Ken Jacaway was taken to Providence Centralia Hospital. Walkowski said others declined aid.

“We took a look at them, they were all good to go,” Walkowski said.

Twelve-year-old Rionna Harris said she looked out from her second-story bedroom window across the street and saw an orange glow and flames coming from the west side of the building. She woke her parents up.

“I just heard a bunch of pops, like gunshots going off, and a lady hollering,” Tony Harris said.

Harris said by the time he got outside, several of the apartments’ inhabitants were standing on the street.

The box-shaped building has four apartments, in a neighborhood of older and very close together homes.

“A lot of these houses are old, ours was built in 1908,” Annette Harris said. “I don’t know how old that is.”

Norma Taylor said she’s lived in the apartments ground level unit for about a year. She said she heard a lot of noise on the stairs, but nobody came to wake her up.

“Our bedroom’s right there, I looked in the bathroom and the wall was on fire,” she said.

Taylor, 55, said she has a cat that hadn’t yet been found.

She said she thinks eight people total live in the building.

“By the time we got out, there was one cop car,” she said. “We could account for everybody.”

Walkowski, who is chief of Centralia’s Riverside Fire Authority and recently took over as chief for the Chehalis Fire Department, said 47 firefighters from eight departments – from as far away as Olympia – responded.

“When we arrived, it was pretty much fully involved,” he said.

Thirty-six-year-old Tim Brandner, who was staying at his girlfriend’s house, said he was already awake when he realized the building next door was burning.

Katie Laverell said she grabbed her iPad, her dog and some clothing she had laid out for work.

“When I seen the blinds started melting on the inside, I said, we gotta go,” Brandner said.

Laverell, 24, is among those being helped by the Red Cross this morning.

She looked toward her house, not knowing when she might go back or what was lost.

Jacaway was released from the hospital and back on the street corner with Taylor before the fire hoses even shut down.

He said he was okay.

“We’re both here, that’s the best,” Jacaway said. “Everyone got out.”

Firefighters from Chehalis, Centralia and six other departments responded to the early morning fire.

•

Katie Laverell, with her dog Samson, talks with a Red Cross worker as her boyfriend Tim Brandner looks on.

•

Witnesses said the fire jumped from the apartment building, on the right, to the single-family house next door, on the left.

•

Nearly 50 firefighters battled the morning fires on West Street in Chehalis.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A 36-year-old man pleaded guilty yesterday in Lewis County Superior Court to drive-by shooting, even though he didn’t fire a weapon from a vehicle.

Gilbert Borquez was the man who said he retrieved a shotgun from his girlfriend’s car when he saw the man he was meeting outside an Adna gas station had a handgun; Borquez initially told detectives he accidentally fired it into the ground.

Gilbert Borquez

The case involves two vehicles full of people from Raymond and a third car that all fled after a gunshot was heard at the 76 station off state Route 6 on April 16. Lewis County sheriff’s detectives said the group was trying to help a woman get back her rental car – containing $500 and all her belongings – from her ex-boyfriend who stole it.

After the plea deal wrapped up with Borquez sentenced to 34 months in prison yesterday morning, Lewis County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Will Halstead said one doesn’t necessarily have to be in a vehicle when they fire a gun for the offense to qualify as drive-by shooting. In this case, a vehicle was used to transport the pistol-grip sawed off shotgun to the scene, Halstead said.

“The title isn’t really what you would think it is,” Halstead said of the statute.

There was no allegation anyone was shot.

In exchange for dropping a charge of first-degree assault, Borquez pleaded guilty to drive-by shooting, unlawful possession of a firearm and possession of a short barrel shotgun.

Both Halstead and defense attorney J.P. Enbody told Judge Nelson Hunt Borquez was straightforward with law enforcement and cooperative.

Halstead said when the rental car was located, detectives found an area on it that showed a scrape pattern consistent with buckshot. The victim, Paul Martin, was arrested in Oregon and is currently facing criminal charges related to taking the woman’s car, Halstead said.

The woman, Amalia Copp, 43, has pleaded guilty in Lewis County to unlawful possession of a firearm because it was on the seat next to her on the ride to Adna, according to Halstead.

Robert R. Ogilve, 42, who fled on foot and was found by sheriff’s deputies that afternoon along the Chehalis River, has pleaded guilty to escape in connection with not meeting with his community corrections officer.

Halstead said there are two other individuals who have yet to be arrested for their roles.
•••

For background, read “Sawed off shotgun found near Adna gas station, one arrested” from Thursday April 18, 2013, here

Joshua D. C. Rhoades faces a judge in Lewis County Superior Court.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The 32-year-old Centralia resident said to be the leader of the local LVL gang was sentenced today to a little more than nine years in prison for a roughly 30 to 40 second fight earlier this year on a Centralia street in which a 17-year-old boy was knocked unconscious.

Joshua Rhoades was convicted by a jury in April of second-degree assault.

His one-week-old baby boy was among a handful of family members and friends present during this morning’s proceedings in Lewis County Superior Court. They were out numbered by law enforcement officers in the courtroom.

Prosecutors said during his trial that Rhoades jumped out of a car, flashing gang signs and asking the teen and his two friends if they knew who he was and if they were  rival “Nortenos”. The teenager Dustin McLean testified Rhoades held a closed knife in his fist as he struck him.

The brief brawl in downtown Centralia on Jan 31 included two of Rhoades’ companions as well as at least two of the three boys. McLean said he was hit well over 20 times.

Defense attorney Chris Baum asked the judge today to give his client 65 months, the bottom of the standard sentencing range. The top was 82 months. Baum said there was a lot of discussion of gang activity by the prosecutor during the trial, but the injury itself not that serious and it was more like a misdemeanor assault.

Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Joely O’Rourke recommended the judge sentence Rhoades to the maximum of 10 years, noting the special finding by the jury allowed the judge to go above the standard range.

O’Rourke said Rhoades is well known to Centralia police, who say he is the leader of the LVL and that he assaulted the teenager without provocation.

LVL stands for Little Valley Locos or Little Valley Lokotes a gang locally made up mostly of individuals who grew up in Centralia when it was particularly active in the summer of 2007. Police say Rhoades goes by the street name Spooker.

“This is one of the few times a victim has been brave enough to come in and testify against Mr. Rhoades,” O’Rourke said.

She said the teen’s family has taken him out of school and moved away because he has been threatened, harassed and assaulted since the trial.

Rhoades maintained his innocence when asked by the judge if he wanted to make any statement.

“Well, Ms. O’Rourke, because of me being who I am or whatever, she had no problem offering me a plea bargain of 80 months,” Rhoades said.

Judge James Lawler gave Rhoades 10 months less than 10 years, so that he could also impose 10 months of supervision by the state Department of Corrections upon his release.

The basis for the exceptional sentence was because of the special gang finding by the jury, Lawler said.

The jury had found the assault was committed with a deadly weapon and also a so-called aggravator that the incident was intended to enhance Rhoades’ affiliation in a street gang.

Rhoades previous most recent criminal convictions are for malicious mischief in 2008 and third-degree assault in 2004. Before that, he has convictions for intimidating a witness and theft in 2000 and a second-degree assault in 1999, and then a juvenile record.

His attorney filed a notice of appeal.
•••

For background, read “Lewis County jury convicts Centralia gang member of assault on teen” from Friday April 26, 2013, here

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

The now former treasurer of an organization for youth sports has been accused of misappropriating funds that were kept in the Morton bank where she worked.

Sarah J. Erskine, 34, handled the money for the Morton Athletic Association, for “gosh, several years,” the group’s president Chad Cramer said.

Cramer went to Morton Police Chief Dan Mortensen in mid-May after he and other members who had been scrutinizing the records for several months suspected the treasurer had been dipping into the accounts for about two years.

“No, she’s not still treasurer,” Cramer said today.

The association historically has organized, run or financially supported various non-school based activities from T-Ball and Babe Ruth Baseball to basketball, football and cheerleading, according to Cramer. Mostly for children younger than middle school age, he said.

He called it a 40-year-old institution that’s always been run by adults who are friends, kind of on handshakes an agreements.

“It appeared to Cramer that Erskine was taking money from different accounts and then making an effort to replace that money,” court documents state. “Cramer told Mortensen he believed Erskine got in too deep and couldn’t pay all the money back.”

The amount in question is alleged to be upwards of $12,000.

The investigation by the Morton Police Department began on May 13 and concluded on June 20.

“I will make the point Sarah did pay the money back that was remaining, immediately upon everything coming to light,” Cramer said this afternoon.

Court documents confirm that by mid-June, the accounts were replenished and shortages repaid by her family. Many personal friends also helped her pay some of it back, according to court documents.

Cramer said in court documents Erskine was a teller at Sterling Savings Bank but was fired recently because of the issue. The bank only confirmed she no longer is employed there.

A charge of first-degree theft has been filed in Lewis County Superior Court. Erskine has not been arrested, but summonsed to appear before a judge on July 19.

The case comes on the heels of another local misuse of a fund meant for young people operated by a group of parents.

A 43-year-old Chehalis man was charged this spring with helping himself to some $8,000 from an account run by in part by his wife for the W.F. West High School senior class.

Robert N. Downs Jr.  was charged with first-degree theft and 14 counts of forgery, as he allegedly signed his wife’s name to checks written out to himself. When Chehalis police announced their findings in March, they indicated that Downs’ wife had replaced the missing money after she learned of the losses.

Downs has pleaded not guilty but is scheduled to appear in court on July 24 to change his plea. Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer said today he offered him a deal in which he could go to prison for one year and one day.

In Erskine’s case, she met with the police chief voluntarily in May, cried, said she was prepared to finish paying the final $3,000 remaining and that she’d “just gotten caught up in everything,” according to court documents.

Sterling Bank held four accounts for the Morton Athletic Association. It appeared Erskine had generated a debit card for her own use, court documents state.

Court documents state her mother-in-law went to the police chief last month and payed the last of debt. “Sarah told her she used the money to pay personal bills,” the documents state.

Cramer provided the police chief records highlighting the withdrawals he did not think were costs incurred by the association. They included expenditures at Bailey’s IGA, Wal-Mart, the Shell gas station in Morton, Big 5 Sporting Goods and Centralia Factory Outlets, according to the court documents.

Attempts to reach Erskine for comment were unsuccessful.

Cramer suggested he bore some responsibility for the situation going undetected. He said the MAA board has been in transition, with many of the long term participants stepping down as their children had grown up, including Erskine.

“Which is maybe why this wasn’t being watched as closely as it should have,” he said.

He couldn’t think of any ways it has affected the youth involved, but is mainly concerned about preserving the group’s integrity.

The association is in the final stages of a lengthy process of combining into a new organization with similar groups from the Randle  and farther east areas, he said. It’s called the Morton-White Pass Athletic Association.

“We’ve just got our board and our bylaws,” he said.

Cramer said they’ve put out the word the public is welcome to their board meetings and to ask questions. The next one is July 19.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A Lewis County jury concluded yesterday a former Olympia-area truck driver who completed his prison term for raping a hitchhiking teenager should now be held indefinitely as a sexually violent predator.

Mark T. Robinson, 46, was released last year following his 12-year sentence for the knifepoint sexual assault of an 18-year-old girl he picked up at a Spokane truck stop. The teen was headed to Toledo to visit her child and escaped his big rig at an exit on Interstate 5 near her destination.

Mark T. Robinson

The civil commitment trial which began last week in Lewis County Superior Court ended late yesterday afternoon.

Robinson had only one other criminal conviction in his past, patronizing a prostitute, but reportedly confessed to raping dozens of prostitutes in Pierce and King counties during the four to five years before his arrest in the summer of 2000.

He is among a small number of individuals convicted of sex crimes in Washington state where after their criminal sentence is completed, authorities attempt to retain them in custody for treatment until they are no longer dangerous.

Robinson will now return to the McNeil Island Special Commitment Center, where he has been detained since his release. Judge James Lawler signed a warrant of commitment after the verdict.

One of his two lawyers, Martin Mooney, said his client will be locked up until he’s better.

“I say in theory, because I have a cynical view of the nature of the treatment offered at the center,” Mooney said.

The state legislature invented the term, mental abnormality, back in the early 1990s, he said. But it doesn’t have any meaning in psychology, he said.

The process comes from the Community Protection Act of 1990, the first of its kind in the country, that followed a particularly heinous offense against a little boy in Pierce County, according to Mooney.

It’s a controversial law; people think it’s double jeopardy, he said.

“This law is purportedly an offspring of of civl commitment, so it’s that, but it’s not really that, because Mr. Robinson is not mentally ill,” he said.

Mooney said it’s problematic in that a proper client-therapist relationship can hardly develop when the same therapist is providing evidence for the state of why the person should not be released.

Mooney, who works for the Snohomish County Public Defenders Association, was appointed by the state to represent Robinson. He’s been handling these types of cases for about a decade, he said.

Senior Counsel Malcom Ross, of the Office of the Attorney General of Washington, represented the state.

In Robinson’s case, Mooney argued that although he is diagnosed as a sexual sadist, that doesn’t mean he can’t control his behavior. It’s essentially just an “interest,” he said.

Studies show that among rapists, the reoffense rate is essentially the same for sadists and non-sadists, he said. Statistically, among people with Robinson’s profile, the reoffense rate is about 24 percent, he said.

“That may not sound low, but the law is looking at 50 percent, or more likely than not,” he said.

Mooney said his client has undergone treatment, although he didn’t do well according to his therapist.

“But he didn’t get kicked out,” he said.

The then-teenage victim wasn’t among those who testified during Robinson’s commitment trial. She died at age 25, the victim of a homicide at a motel in Wyoming.

•••

For background, read “Rapist convicted in Lewis County faces indefinite lockup after prison term” from Monday May 21, 2012, here

Updated at 8:35 p.m.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The convicted triple murderer who once called Onalaska home is seeking to the put an end to practices he contends are eavesdropping by the state on Lewis County Jail inmates, jeopardizing their rights to confidential communications with their lawyers.

And he’s already made some progress.

John Allen Booth Jr.

John Allen Booth Jr., now 34, is serving a life sentence at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla for the shootings in a Salkum area home almost three years ago. Prosecutors argued Booth and a fellow former cell mate visited a house off Gore Road because they were “taxing” the man who lived there – with his girlfriend and teenage son – on behalf of Lewis County drug dealer Robbie Russell.

In a typewritten motion, Booth tells of law enforcement officers standing outside the jail’s row of visiting rooms while he consulted with his attorneys and their investigators. He points out that people almost had to yell back and forth to be heard through the transparent partitions.

He states he could easily hear the conversations of other lawyers and accused persons all around him.

“On many occasions, other attorneys informed Mr. Booth and whoever with him he was consulting with they could hear everything that was being said, and there were sheriff’s deputies outside in the hallway,” Booth writes.

In his filing, Booth included affidavits by other former inmates to bolster his accusation, and a letter from Centralia attorney Don Blair.

The letter states it’s been an ongoing problem at the jail that Blair has brought up to the jail administration and judges, noting he told them it was only a matter of time that an inmate would have an issue with the lack of confidentiality during attorney visits.

“The state made sure they learned my trial strategy and harassed any witnesses I wanted to bring forth,” Booth wrote.

He calls it “ear hustling”.

The filing made in December is the reason Booth was scheduled to appear in Lewis County Superior Court this week, although his hearing was cancelled because Judge Richard Brosey was in trial.

The filing specifically alleges governmental misconduct and the state’s infringement of Booth’s right to counsel. It’s part of a motion to vacate the judgement and sentence based on court rule 7.8.

Lewis County Chief Criminal Deputy Brad Meagher said it’s separate from the appeal those convicted can make to the Washington State Court of Appeals.

“Defendants have this other option,” Meagher said. “You can move to set aside your judgement on a limited variety of grounds.”

A third avenue which can be pursued is called a personal restraint petition. Booth reportedly is working on all three types of appeals.

Lewis County Jail Chief Kevin Hanson said he began taking steps to mitigate the problem when he first found out it was an issue in recent months, after Booth’s motion was filed.

While routine jail visits were long ago moved to a computer screen system in which the inmate doesn’t leave the cell, the six cement-walled booths that remain are used for face to face visits with lawyers and sometimes others, according to Hanson. The glass partitions have small holes around their perimeter meant for voices to get across.

“These rooms were never totally soundproof,” Hanson said. “It’s the way they were designed.”

At first, the jail began restricting inmate-attorney visits to only one set at a time, Hanson said.

Now he has had phones installed on each side of each booth.

“We installed carpet to muffle sounds like chairs scratching on the floor,” he said. “And we’re installing sound board, acoustical sheeting, on the cement walls.”

Hanson has told the Lewis County Board of Commissioners it won’t fix all the related problems, but at least will show they’ve made an effort.

Hanson said it’s not an issue that corrections officers stand in the hallway, and that they do so for high-risk inmates.

Booth was held in the Lewis County Jail from August 27, 2010 until he was sentenced on Dec. 16, 2011 under the so-called three strikes law to life in prison with no chance for release.

The victims, David West Sr., 52; his son David “D.J.” West Jr., 16; and 50-year-old Tony Williams of Randle were each fatally shot in the head on Aug. 21, 2010.  Denise Salts, 51, was shot in the face but survived. Booth was also convicted of attempted extortion and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Booth denied shooting any of them, although he admitted being at the home earlier in the evening saying West Sr. owed him money from a pound of methamphetamine.

Booth raised other issues in his motion, claiming a deputy told him he listened to recorded conversations Booth had with his attorney, jail staff snooped through his cell where he had defense strategy notes and read his mail and a sheriff’s detective sat directly behind he and his attorney during his trial eavesdropping. He also noted that during trial recesses a corrections officer always accompanied him and his lawyer into a room set aside for them.

He wrote in court documents his filings should be considered filed timely, as he spent his first full year in prison in “the hole” and couldn’t do it any sooner. He writes that he has been working diligently.

The court assigned defense attorney Erik Kupka and his office partner to represent Booth on the matters and they appeared before Judge Brosey in February. At that hearing, Booth asked the judge about other issues, such as DNA evidence from the autopsies that turned up in a locker at the coroner’s office long after his trial was over.

Booth stated in court documents he was told to file another motion. And he did.

At the end of March he filed new papers under the same type of motion claiming the state acted fraudulently for failing to disclose the DNA evidence, for failing to disclose a plea agreement with Salts and failing to notify the defense she had a multimillion dollar incentive by way of a lawsuit with the state Department of Corrections to help convict him.

In an accompanying letter, he requested Kupka be appointed to represent him on the supplemental motion. But added: “And if you don’t give me a lawyer, just let me know, and I’ll gladly represent myself.”

Kupka said this week he hasn’t been made aware of Booth’s new issues.

“He may be bringing it to the court’s attention, to have the court assign me,” he said. “That’s what you’ve got to do to get the ball rolling,” he said.

Meagher said the court hearing which was planned for Tuesday and didn’t happen was specifically to focus on a disagreement between he and Kupka.

“He wants the state to produce a lot of material,” Meagher said, giving as an example, a list of who works at the jail. “We said no.”

The court hearing was rescheduled for Sept. 3.

Also new in the six-volume court file are documents which hint at an issue Booth’s appellate counsel is looking at.

Attorney Stephanie Cunningham filed a request for transcripts from the proceedings during which jurors were selected, also known as voire dire.

Cunningham was appointed in May of last year to represent Booth for his appeal, which was filed for him the day he was sentenced.

His accompanying declaration states that his trial attorney Roger Hunko erred, and that a juror who was a neighbor of one of the deceased should have been struck for cause.
•••

For background, read “Judge will hear Onalaskan’s request to toss his murder convictions this coming September” from Monday February 4, 2013, here