Lewis County Sirens.com

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Police are investigating a shooting last night involving two men who are relatives that occurred on a residential street in Chehalis.

One man is in custody and the other was hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries, according to the Chehalis Police Department.

Both are 36-year-old Chehalis residents.

It happened on Southwest William Avenue near Fourth Street about 8:30 p.m., about three blocks from the suspect’s home, according to police.

Police say the victim was driving a car and the suspect was walking the same direction on the sidewalk when the suspect fired a round that struck the rear quarter panel.

“The victim then pulled over to the side of the road and started to get out of the car when the suspect approached him and fired another round,” police stated in a news release.

Police department spokesperson Linda Bailey said the victim put his hand up by his head to block, and the bullet went through his hand. He also had an injury to the side of his head, but detectives aren’t certain yet what caused it, she said.

Bailey said the two are cousins.

“We still are investigating the reason for the shooting,” she said this morning. “That has not become clear yet.”

The suspect, Chan H. Oscar, then ran off and law enforcement officers from Chehalis, Centralia, the state patrol and the sheriff’s office scoured the area for the next three and a half hours, according to police.

The victim, whose name has not been released, was conscious and sitting on the bumper of a car when firefighters arrived. He was quickly transported away from the scene to Providence Centralia Hospital, according to the Chehalis Fire Department.

A street was blocked off and a search of the area was conducted using a police dog, according to Bailey.

Shortly after midnight, officers saw a sport utility vehicle leave a residence where Oscar is known to stay, according to police. Officers conducted a “high risk traffic stop” a few blocks south of the shooting, at Southwest Pacific Avenue and 10th Street.

Oscar, the passenger, was taken into custody without further incident. A 9 mm semi-automatic handgun was recovered at the same time, Bailey said.

Another occupant of the vehicle, Lenard A. Carlile, 50, also from Chehalis, was arrested for rendering criminal assistance, according to police.

Oscar was booked into the Lewis County Jail for first-degree assault, police said.

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A week after his escape, Green Hill student-inmate Dominic Adams was found yesterday evening at the Three Rivers Mall in Kelso.

Officers were investigating an assault in the south end of town from earlier in the day and contacted two individuals with similar descriptions of the two suspects at the mall around 6 p.m., according to the Kelso Police Department.

Dominic Adams

One was arrested for a warrant, and the other for obstruction, Kelso Capt. Darr Kirk said.

“Then we discovered he was wanted for escaping Green Hill,” Kirk said this morning.

Kelso police say Adams gave a false name and tried to flee the officers but was taken into custody following a short struggle. He reportedly had a wooden billy club with him.

Adams was booked into the Cowlitz County Jail for obstruction, warrants and faces possible other charges related to the interaction with Kelso police, according to Kirk.

Kirk said he didn’t know when Adams would be sent back to Green Hill School in Chehalis.

The Kelso police captain didn’t have information on the second individual, but thought it might be a juvenile. The Kelso assault remains under investigation, he said.

It was about 9 p.m. a week earlier when Chehalis police were called to the state run juvenile detention facility at the south end of Chehalis.

They were told Adams ran off during a maintenance detail and staff members subsequently found a hole cut in the fence. Authorities believed someone in a car seen near the compound, who was flashing their lights and honking their horn, picked Adams up.

Adams was serving the remainder of his juvenile sentence and was to be transferred to adult prison next March to serve 105 months for an assault that occurred in 2013.

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“Green Hill escapee: On the run from adult prison term” from Thursday May 7, 2015, here

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS –  Former Toledo elementary school principal Ron Reynolds lost his federal lawsuit against the Lewis County coroner and has filed an appeal.

Reynolds contended Coroner Warren McLeod had no legal basis for conducting an inquest into the 1998 death of his then-wife, Ronda Reynolds.

Ron Reynolds

His lawyer called the 2011 proceedings scandalous, leading to severe harm to his client’s reputation and employability.

The initial claim listed $5 million in damages and the case was filed in Lewis County Superior Court, and then moved to U.S. District Court in late 2013.

U.S. District Court Judge Benjamin Settle granted a summary judgement early last month in favor of McLeod, and Lewis County, which is also named.

At issue was the October 2011 coroner’s inquest convened by McLeod, who made a campaign promise the year before to deal with the long controversial death of former state trooper Ronda Reynolds.

Ronda Reynolds, 33, was found with a bullet in her head and covered by a turned-on electric blanket on the floor of a closet in the Toledo home she shared with her husband of less than a year and his three sons.

Warren McLeod

Reynolds’ and his son Jonathan Reynolds were named by the inquest jury as responsible for the death, which the panel concluded was homicide.

The inquest and the days that followed it were heavily covered by the local and regional news media, as well as providing the framework for a one-hour documentary produced by CBS television’s 48 Hours Mystery.

Jonathan Reynolds was also party to suit with his father, but had dismissed his claim, according to attorney John Justice, who represents McLeod and the county.

Justice said he felt like the summary judgement represented the court’s belief the inquest was fair and impartial, the conclusions of the inquest jury were based on the instructions given and that state law mandated the issuance of arrest warrants after that.

Ronda Reynolds

The two men were arrested and immediately released by a Lewis County Superior Court judge because the prosecutor was not filing criminal charges following the inquest.

“I think it boiled down to the court found Coroner McLeod had the authority to conduct the inquest,” Justice said today.

Ron Reynolds, though his attorney, filed the appeal within the 30 days to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, he said.

McLeod declined to comment on the case, and Ron Reynolds’ attorney has not returned phone calls seeking comment.

Ron Reynolds and his lawyer have until August 10 to file their brief, Justice said, and then he has 30 days to file his response on behalf of the county and the coroner.
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For background, read “Lawsuit filed against Lewis County coroner over inquest” from Tuesday December 17, 2013, here

Brenda Wing and her lawyer prepare to enter a guilty plea to first-degree manslaughter in Lewis County Superior Court.

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Twenty-seven-year-old Brenda A. Wing pleaded guilty today to her role in last fall’s death of a 3-year-old toddler who was living with her, her husband and their three children in Vader.

Despite a hearing that lasted more than 45 minutes, no light was shed upon what happened to the little boy during his last days on earth.

Jasper Henderling-Warner was pronounced dead at Providence Centralia Hospital after medics and deputies responded to an evening call for an unconscious child on Oct. 5.

Brenda Wing had said she’d put the limp child into the bathtub to revive him after he’d been sleeping much of the day on their couch. But she also told detectives they’d just picked Jasper up from his mother in Woodland the night before.

She and her husband Danny A. Wing were both arrested and charged.

Detectives concluded the Wings had taken Jasper in much earlier, after his 21-year-old mother gave them temporary custody while she was homeless and looked for work out of state.

The sheriff called it severe abuse and neglect, the coroner labeled the cause of death as chronic battered child syndrome.

Brenda Wing this afternoon pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter, to third-degree child assault and other offenses.

Lewis County Superior Court Judge James Lawler read aloud her written statement of what she admitted to, and asked her if that was indeed her statement.

She admitted to, as an accomplice, recklessly causing the death of another person, and negligently causing bodily harm that caused substantial pain that extended for a period of time sufficient to cause considerable suffering to a child.

Danny A. Wing, 27, last month pleaded guilty also to first-degree manslaughter and third-degree child assault. He agreed to cooperate with prosecutors and remains jailed awaiting sentencing.

Both Wings avoided a much more serious charge of homicide by abuse by taking plea deals.

Lewis County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Will Halstead and defense attorney John Crowley told the judge they’d like wait three weeks before they return to court to pick a date to sentence Brenda Wing.

Neither lawyer gave a reason for the delay.

“There’s other things going on with the case,” Halstead said after the hearing ended. “It doesn’t end just because they pled.”

The autopsy found numerous bruises, healing fractures and injuries such as trauma to Jasper’s face, and two lower front teeth missing. Prosecutors had multiple doctors lined up who were expected to testify at trial as to what caused the death.

Lewis County Coroner Warren McLeod found also that the little boy was suffering from skin infections that were secondary to his cause of death.

Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer has said prosecutors will recommend Danny Wing be sent to prison for 16 years and four months. Halstead today declined to share what he will recommend for Brenda Wing.

He said she faces a standard sentencing range of 12 to 16 years.

Brenda Wing also pleaded guilty today to two counts of witness tampering and two counts of possession of heroin, with all the offenses taking place between July 31 and Oct. 5 of last year.

Separately, the court today scheduled Danny Wing’s sentencing for Aug. 14, so far into the future in part because of his attorney’s availability, according to Halstead.

The sentencings will take place in front of Judge Nelson Hunt.
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For background, read “Second plea deal in the works in Vader toddler’s death” from Thursday April 30, 2015, here

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Police are still looking for the Green Hill School inmate who apparently slipped away through a hole in the fence on Sunday night.

Dominic Adams began his time at the state run juvenile detention facility at age 15 for burglary, theft and assault convictions in Benton County, according to authorities.

Dominic Adams

Chehalis police said they suspect somebody in an older red car cut a hole in the fence and picked him up.

Chehalis Deputy Chief Randy Kaut said among the first steps were to learn where Adams had friends and family, and police subsequently found Adams’ previous home was in Kennewick, but he also had some addresses in California.

Now 19, Adams was finishing serving his juvenile sentence at Green Hill and next March was to be shipped off to adult prison for events that occurred in 2013.

He has an adult sentence of almost nine years waiting for him, according to Chris Wright, a spokesperson for the state Department of Social and Health Services.

Green Hill School in Chehalis is a secure facility for older juvenile boys incarcerated for felonies and operated by the Juvenile Rehabilitation Administration, under DSHS. It currently houses 173 inmate-students, according to Wright.

Almost two years ago during Adams’ stay at a minimum security community reentry program in Ellensburg, he and another kid beat up a staff member pretty bad, Wright said.

Adams was charged and convicted as an adult for the incident, according to Wright. The (Ellensburg) Daily Record reported in September 2013 that the two 17-year-olds were accused of jumping a staff member, tying him up, taking his keys and escaping.

Chehalis police today said detectives are continuing to check addresses and follow up in their attempt to find Adams.

He is described as 5-feet 9-inches tall and weighing 160 pounds with brown eyes and black hair.

A razor-wire topped fence surrounds the compound at the Southeast Intersection of Interstate 5 and 13th Street.

Both of the last two escapes have been through, not over, the fence.

Chehalis police were called at 9:01 p.m. on Sunday and told Adams ran off from a maintenance detail; and that staff subsequently located the breach in the fence. A staff member had seen an older red car in the area, honking its horn and flashing its lights, according to police.

Green Hill Superintendent Marybeth Queral had a department spokesperson return her calls to respond to inquiries about the incident. Spokesperson Wright also issued a news release that indicated the escape occurred at about 8:30 p.m.

Wright stated that Green Hill staff immediately notified the Chehalis Police Department.

Kaut said he was trying to find out if indeed, and then why, there may have been a delay in contacting police.
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“Green Hill inmate at large after fleeing through hole in fence” from Monday May 4, 2015, here

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A 44-year-old man accused of firing a rifle towards his girlfriend as she ran away from him outside her trailer home in Onalaska was sentenced today to one year and one day in prison.

Todd H. Bergfalk made a so-called Alford plea, regarding two counts of second-degree assault.

Todd H. Bergfalk

His lawyer said because of inebriation, his client couldn’t recall enough to admit to specific events.

Bergfalk was arrested March 21, after deputies were called to the 700 block of state Route 508, and told he fired approximately 10 rounds from a 22 rifle, and also pointed the weapon at his girlfriend’s grown son. Deputies reported he was intoxicated and emotional, rambling about abused animals and told them they should just take him to jail.

Defense attorney David Arcuri said the original charges each included an “enhancement” that the offenses were committed with a firearm, but prosecutors dropped those as part of a plea dea. Each one of those would have meant an additional three years of incarceration, which are required to be served consecutive to the sentence, Arcuri said.

The standard sentencing range for second-degree assault is 12 to 14 months, and the two sides agreed to the low end, as did the judge today in Lewis County Superior Court. Bergfalk had no previous felonies, Arcuri said.

Neither charging documents nor the sheriff’s office indicated why he may have been upset, and Arcuri said outside the courtroom he wasn’t going to talk about that.

The sheriff’s office said Bergfalk lives in Tacoma. He gave his home address as Onalaska in court documents.

He will be under the supervision of the state Department of Corrections for three years after his release, Arcuri said.
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For background, read, “May trial set for boyfriend’s rampage with 22 rifle in Onalaska” from Friday March 27, 2015, here

Updated at 10:27 a.m.

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS –  An inmate at Green Hill School in Chehalis escaped last night apparently through a hole cut in the fence.

Officers called about 9 p.m. to the state-run juvenile incarceration facility at the south end of town were told the teen was on a maintenance detail, then ran off, according to the Chehalis Police Department.

A hole was found cut in the fence and another staff member reported seeing an older red car in the area, honking its horn and flashing its lights, Chehalis Deputy Chief Randy Kaut said this morning.

“We think whoever was there to pick him up probably made the hole,” Kaut said.

Kaut said 19-year-old Dominic A. Adams was doing time at Green Hill for escape. He said he didn’t know the underlying offense, or what part of the state he is from.

Officers last night requested a K-9 to conduct a track, but there were no police dogs available Kaut said.

He expected detectives this morning would be conducting inquires into where Adams might have friends or family.

Green Hill School is a secure facility for older juvenile boys incarcerated for felonies and operated by the Juvenile Rehabilitation Administration, under the state Department of Social and Health Services. It sits between Interstate 5 and Southwest Pacific Avenue north of Southwest Parkland Street.

It was November of 2010 when a 16-year-old inmate-student climbed out his window during the night, took wire cutters from an unlocked building on the campus to cut a hole in the fence, and was discovered missing the following morning. He was picked up in Yelm three weeks later.

Chehalis police are asking anyone with information on last night’s incident to contact Lewis County dispatch at 360-740-1105.