Lewis County Sirens.com

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Prosecutors have charged a 44-year-old woman with bigamy, claiming she married a man in Lewis County when she already had two husbands.

Carrie R. Justus has pleaded not guilty in Lewis County Superior Court.

Elected Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer said he’s never seen a case of bigamy locally in his career, except for a civil suit once involving a woman who was surprised to learn she was not divorced.

Justus was in court with her attorney on Thursday, after being summonsed to appear.

“Law enforcement was contacted by one of her quote, unquote husbands,” Meyer said.

According to charging documents, Steven Felix who is serving time in a Washington prison, informed a detective at the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office he’d been told by his wife, Justus, that at the time they were married she was still married to another man.

Felix learned of this during an argument with Justus, according to charging documents.

The two married in August 2007, yet in July 1999, Justus was wed to Timothy Justus and never divorced, prosecutors allege.

Timothy Justus is serving time in the North Carolina prison system, according to charging documents.

Sheriff’s detective Sgt. Dusty Breen uncovered that she married once even before that, to Eric Mencer in February 1990, according to the allegations.

No court records have been discovered terminating or annulling the marriages, prosecutors wrote.

Carrie Justus claims the first was not a valid marriage, according to the documents.

Bigamy is a class C felony, punishable by a maximum of five years in prison.

Justus, who said she is from Chehalis and Centralia, and now lives in Shelton, said she hasn’t lived in Lewis County for 10 years, and didn’t marry Felix in Lewis County.

“I married Steven Felix in 2007 in Reno, Nevada,” she said.

She had little further comment on the matter, saying she wanted to check with her lawyer first.

Justus’s trial is set for the end of April. She is out of custody on a $5,000 signature bond.

The Learning Tree of Centralia is open for business, for now.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CENTRALIA – A Centralia child daycare center remains open but its operator is not allowed on the premises following her charges for multiple drug offenses.

Roberta E. Johnson, 50, is the licensee for The Learning Tree of Centralia, a center that cares for children off East Union Street in the south end of town.

Johnson is also the state business license holder for Triple Ds Natural and Alternative Medicines Clinic, an enterprise that authorities allege sold marijuana.

Johnson and Donald E. Smith, 51, were arrested in November when drug detectives served a search warrant at the Grand Mound store front they said was operating as an illegal marijuana dispensary.

The married couple were among 17 individuals picked up when the Thurston County Narcotics Task Force raided five locations in the county.

At the time, the state agency that licenses day care facilities said since Johnson was released without charges following her arrest, there was no action for it to take.

A file was opened but the license remained valid, according to a spokesperson for the state Department of Early Learning.

However, today the state agency contacted Johnson and she agreed she would voluntarily stay off-site while they examine the situation, according to spokesperson Kara Klotz.

Johnson and Smith were charged Friday in Thurston County Superior Court each with 12 counts of delivery of marijuana, 13 counts of  unlawful use of a building for drug purposes, one count of possession with intent to deliver and one count of manufacture of marijuana.

The Thurston County Narcotics Task Force said it made numerous undercover purchases of marijuana from Triple Ds.

At the time of the raid, a task force spokesperson said while the state’s medical marijuana law allows patients to grow their own or have a caregiver grow it for them, the law “clearly prohibits the sale of marijuana by anybody, to anybody.”

The pair are expected in court on Tuesday when they will get an opportunity to make their pleas and the court’s conditions of release will be addressed, according to Thurston County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Jack Jones.

Johnson hasn’t responded to attempts to contact her.

The Learning Tree was open for business this afternoon, with a half dozen toddlers and an adult seated at a round table chattering.

Forty-three children are currently enrolled there, according to Klotz. The center is authorized to serve little ones ages one through 12.

A woman at The Learning Tree who declined to give her name said she was in charge.

“Right now, it’s my job to protect this business, to make sure we stay open,” the unidentified woman said.

The building that housed Triple Ds along Old Highway 99 has been vacated.

A neighbor, Troy Marrs, said Smith operated a medical marijuana-type center there, but his wife was not involved.

“Straight up, she had nothing to do with the place,” Marrs said. “I know her very well, she’s an awesome person with children; she wouldn’t do nothing to jeopardize that.”

Klotz said Johnson is cooperating with the child care licensing agency.

“She’s working on a plan to keep the center open while she deals with the charges,” Klotz said.

If the agency doesn’t agree with her plan, she will have to shut down, Klotz said.

Also, Johnson will need to undergo another background check, which they don’t expect she will pass, Klotz said.

Triple Ds in Grand Mound is shuttered.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

Centralia last year experienced its lowest per capita crime rate in more than 50 years, returning to a downward trend Police Chief Bob Berg says began in 2005.

The overall crime rate in Lewis County’s largest city decreased by almost one-third from the year before, although 2010 had featured a huge spike in the level of crime, according to Berg.

The chief, hired in early 2004, last week released figures compiled for the Washington State Association of Sheriff’s and Police Chiefs as part of the Uniform Crime Reporting Program which are forwarded to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

WASPC expects to publish its 2011 Crime in Washington report with statistics from most police agencies around the state by mid-April.

Berg called the department’s targeted work during the past year outstanding.

“Aggressive police work and incarceration of several local career criminals, coupled with support and cooperation from the community no doubt contributed to the decrease,” Berg wrote in a news release.

Centralia officers made 508 felony arrests in 2011 compared with 302 in 2010, he wrote.

Berg’s numbers show 53.16 so-called part one crimes per 1,000 residents last year.

While overall rates for both violent and property crime decreased last year, three of the measured offenses rose compared to 2010, according to Berg.

Forcible rape was up 45 percent, from 11 incidents to 16; robbery was up 14 percent, from 14 to 16; and murder went up 100 percent, from zero to one.

A premature newborn was found decapitated last March in the trailer park home of its mother, Laura L. Hickey. A murder trial for the 25-year-old woman is scheduled for next month.

The remaining part one offenses have decreased compared with 2010. They are:

• Felony assault: down 25 percent (from 69 incidents to 52)
• Burglary: down 23 percent (from 211 incidents to 163)
• Theft: down 31 percent (from 841 incidents to 579)
• Motor vehicle theft: down 9.2 percent (from 65 incidents to 59)
• Arson: down 86 percent (from 7 to 1)

The statistical probability of a Centralia resident becoming the victim of a violent crime is less than one percent and the likelihood of being the victim of a property crime is 4.8 percent (compared with 7.8 percent the year before), according to Berg.

UCR rate 2004 to 2011 in Centralia / Courtesy graphic by Centralia Police Department

•••

For last year’s story about area crime based on WASPC’s annual report, read “Crime up in Lewis County” from  Friday May 20, 2011, here

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

The state Supreme Court has tossed out a man’s DUI conviction and part of his vehicular assault conviction saying prosecutors didn’t prove he was advised of his right to seek an independent blood alcohol test.

A trooper asked an interpreter to read the special warning and his rights in Spanish to Jose Matilde Morales at the hospital, but the state didn’t call the interpreter at trial to attest to that, nor was the signed form introduced into evidence, according to Thursday’s decision.

Morales, 51, was arrested in November 2004 after he “rolled the stop sign” and collided with another car at Big Hanaford Road and state Route 507 outside Centralia. A Bucoda woman and her elderly mother were injured.

He was convicted in Lewis County Superior Court of hit and run, driving under the influence and vehicular assault.

The vehicular assault charge included all three alternatives; DUI, driving recklessly and driving with disregard for the safety of others.

Morales’ lawyer had objected to the admission of the blood test because the only evidence regarding the special warning was the trooper’s testimony he had handed the form to the interpreter and listened while the interpreter spoke to Morales in a language the trooper did not understand, Supreme Court Justice Charles K. Wiggins wrote in the majority opinion. The blood test was admitted.

Judge Pro Tem R.W. Buzzard presided at the trial.

Morales appealed the DUI as well as the parts of the vehicular assault based on driving under the influence and driving recklessly.

The appeals court sided with prosecutors, and then the state Supreme Court agreed to review the case.

The knowledge of the right of independent testing of blood is especially important to a person’s defense because evidence that can prove or disprove the charge will disappear within a relatively short time, Justice Wiggins wrote.

The blood tests were erroneously admitted, the court decided.

The Supreme Court reversed the  DUI conviction and the parts of his vehicular assault conviction based on DUI and reckless driving.

The justices ruled eight to one in favor of Morales. Justice James M. Johnson wrote a dissent.

For Morales, the decision means only those convictions will be removed from his criminal record; he’s already served all his time, Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Sara Beigh said on Friday.

Elected Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer said he and his staff talked about the case on Friday.

“Hindsight being 20-20, that witness should have been called,” Meyer said.

Meyer, who took office a year ago, pointed out the original deputy prosecutor who handled the case during its appeal also failed to brief the Supreme Court on the matter.

The trial and the appeal were handled by two deputy prosecutors Meyer didn’t invite to stay with the office after he was elected, he said.

•••

Read the Supreme Court decision, here

Read the dissenting opinion, here

Colbert A. Salmeron apologizes to Brandon Cagle for firing a gun toward him almost six years ago

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Twenty-five-year-old Colbert A. Salmeron’s eyes eventually welled up as he spoke in court yesterday pleading for leniency, forgiveness and apologizing for firing a gun toward a group of people in downtown Centralia more than five years ago.

“I never wanted to kill him, I did shoot that way, but I didn’t want to hurt them,” Salmeron said as he addressed Lewis County Superior Court Judge James Lawler.

Salmeron said he was young, jealous and had been drinking, but now he’s a father with five children and knows what he did was wrong.

“I want to become a better person, be a better citizen,” he said.

It was August 2006 when at least four individuals were standing next to a pickup truck in a parking lot on North Tower Avenue and Salmeron pulled up and fired six shots striking vehicles, according to law enforcement. No persons were hit.

Salmeron was facing multiple charges of first-degree assault and hiding out in El Salvador when he was captured last year. He pleaded guilty earlier this month to one count of first-degree assault, two counts of third-degree assault and bail jumping.

He was a gang member, but the incident was over a woman with whom he and the target of his anger – Brandon Cagle – both had a relationship with, defense attorney James Dixon said.

In the Chehalis courtroom yesterday, some 15 supporters sat behind the defendant while Cagle was the lone victim who attended the hearing.

Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Colin Hayes and Dixon had worked out a plea deal in which Salmeron faced a sentence of somewhere between about 14 years and a little more than 19 years in prison.

Dixon asked for the low end of the sentence and Hayes asked for 17 years.

Lawler said he had it in his mind when he came to work he would impose the high end of the range, but aimed closer to the middle when it was all said and done.

“You could have killed a number of people with bullets flying all over the place,” Lawler said.

And you ran, he said.

Lawler noted Salmeron’s family support and said he was satisfied “what you can be is different from what you were.”

And, he sentenced Salmeron to 18 years and four months in prison, with credit for time served.

Denise Salts, 52, was taken into custody this morning after pleading guilty to use of drug paraphernalia, a misdemeanor.

Updated at 4:05 p.m.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Prosecutors made a plea deal with Denise R. Salts to drop a delivery of methamphetamine charge admitting they were holding it over her head until after she testified in a triple-murder trial in which she was the only surviving victim.

Lewis County Superior Court Judge Nelson Hunt expressed his displeasure with the attorneys’ agreement Salts should serve no time on a lesser charge, and sent her to jail for eight days this morning.

Salts, 52, was shot in the face when her boyfriend David West Sr. and two others were slain in August 2010 inside her Salkum-Onalaska area home.

Then, the following June she was labeled one of the main narcotics distributors in East Lewis County when the sheriff’s office arrested her, alleging she gave a small baggie of methamphetamine to an informant in exchange for a $20 bill.

Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecutor Brad Meagher amended the charge to unlawful use of drug paraphernalia, a misdemeanor that comes with a sentence of zero to 90 days in jail.

He and defense attorney Michael Underwood agreed to recommend Salts get credit for the two days she served when she was arrested and no more time.

Both said there was no deal in place when she testified last month against John A. Booth Jr.

Meagher did not say Salts was unwilling to testify, only that he had lost track of her and didn’t know where she was. It was always his intent to reward her, he told the judge.

Hunt asked why they made a plea agreement.

“To be quite candid your honor, I felt sorry for her,” Meagher said.

Salts had no criminal history and is a former successful graduate of Lewis County Drug Court.

Hunt calmly blasted Salts for using the resources of his drug court and returning old habits, calling it beyond explanation.

She replied, “I don’t know, I can’t even tell you … I don’t know.”

The judge sentenced her 90 days in jail, with 80 days suspended and gave her credit for two days served.

•••

For background, read:

• “News brief: “Big” drug dealers in court tomorrow” from Wednesday June 22, 2011, here

• “Salkum triple murder: Victims cry, defendant lashes out at sentence hearing” from  Friday December 16, 2011, here