Lewis County Sirens.com

James Michael Abbott talks with his lawyer Don Blair in court yesterday as his trial begins.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Gary Dvojack and his wife moved from Spokane to retire in Chehalis so he could hunt and fish but now he’s in a nursing home; he can’t walk, he can barely speak and he can’t take care of himself, Chief Deputy Prosecutor Brad Meagher told a jury yesterday.

He’s in wheelchair now, and the only reason is because of what happened last November at the Star Tavern, Meagher said.

Dvojack was very drunk when he walked into the Chehalis bar, Meagher continued.

“(Mr. Dvojack) got into an argument with Mr. Abbott, and Mr. Abbott shoved him so hard, Mr. Dvojack fell back and hit his head on the concrete floor,” he said.

His skull was cracked.

Meagher was speaking to a jury in Lewis County Superior Court yesterday morning where James Michael Abbott is on trial for second-degree assault.

Chehalis police arrested Abbott, 49, about a week after the Nov. 30 incident at the watering hole on Northwest Chehalis Avenue in Chehalis. At the time, 65-year-old Dvojack remained unconscious and on life support, according to police.

A jury of five men and seven women are hearing the testimony in a trial that is expected to last into tomorrow.

Meagher spent only about 10 minutes yesterday making his opening statements in the Chehalis courtroom.

He described Dvojack as a drunk old man who made inappropriate comments to the female bartender and told jurors when they see the scene on the security video, they will see Dvojack put the back of his hand on Abbott, and then Abbott using two hands, “launching” Dvojack back several feet.

While the bartender Laurie A. Rager told 911 Abbott told her Dvojack pushed him first, Meagher said, the video will show she had her head down behind the bar and didn’t see it.

“What you’re gonna see might be different from you hear,” Meagher said.

Defense attorney Don Blair spoke to the jurors for about 10 minutes as well.

His client is a longtime resident who used to own a business that sold communications electronics, Blair said.

Abbott went to the tavern to look at the newspaper and watch a Husky game on their big screen television, Blair said. He and others were helping the bartender with her college math homework, he said.

Dvojack had propositioned the bartender, using the F-word and offering her $100, he said.

The bartender is telling Dvojack he’s kicked out; and Abbott is tells Dvojack “why don’t you just leave”, he said.

Dvojack gets more aggressive, Blair says.

“You’ll see in the video, Mr. Dvojack reaches out and hits Mike’s arm,” he said.

He does push him, Blair said.

“And he falls down and hits his head and got injured,” Blair said. “And Mike feels bad about that.”

Was it reasonable?, Blair asks.

“When Mike pushes him, was that push reasonable?” he said. “That’s really the question here.”

The crime charged involves intentional assault and recklessly causing substantial harm; prosecutors are alleging an aggravating circumstance that the victim suffered extreme injuries that are long term.

What jurors won’t hear, is that police arrested the bartender, Rager, for lying. Meagher said he resolved that case; by continuing it.

Fire Chief Matt Hadaller

This news story was updated at 4:18 p.m.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

Mossyrock’s fire chief Matt Hadaller passed away last night.

Hadaller was 47.

Members of Lewis County Fire District 3 are gathered at the fire hall today, with outside fire chiefs who came to take calls from the news media and begin to plan a memorial service.

Hadaller has been chief of District 3 seven and half years, and a member of the department for 20 years, according to Lewis County Fire District 13’s Chief Gregg Peterson.

Peterson sent out an announcement just after noon time saying it is with a heavy heart, the volunteers of District 3 announce the death of their chief.

Exactly what happened isn’t yet known, according to Peterson.

Hadaller was at home, on call, last night when he suffered an as-yet undetermined medical issue, according to Peterson. His brother-in-law Mike Kalouse said he was with Hadaller when it happened.

Members of his own fire department took him by ambulance to Morton General Hospital, but he suffered a cardiac arrest on the way, Peterson said.

They made a “valiant effort to revive him, but sadly, were unsuccessful” Peterson wrote in a news release afternoon.

Hadaller served as a Mossyrock city council member for three years, ending in late 2007, according to the city clerk.

He grew up in the community, Peterson said.

Peterson, Randle’s Fire Chief Jeff Jaques, Napavine Fire Chief Eric Linn and Riverside Fire Authority’s Chief Jim Walkowski are at the Mossyrock fire station working out details of a memorial service to be held on Saturday, Peterson said.

It will take place at the Mossyrock High School football stadium, where Hadaller played quarterback for the Viking’s football team, according to Peterson.

The time is 1 p.m. The address is 295 Williams St. in Mossyrock.

District 3’s commissioner’s appointed Assistant Fire Chief Doug Fosburg interim chief effective at noon today.

•••

Update: Peterson says that any agencies wishing to join the procession with their vehicles should email hadallermemorial@gmail.com noting the apparatus type and number of personnel.

Steven Grant Williams listens to the judge in Lewis County Superior Court this morning as he is sentenced.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS –  A judge this morning sent a Chehalis man away for as long as he possibly could in a child abuse case the jury found involved deliberate cruelty to a 7-year-old boy.

“This case was shocking, the pictures of (the child) were shocking,” Lewis County Superior Court Judge James Lawler said. “I’ve been involved in the court system a lot of years, and I’ll tell you, those pictures set me back.”

Steven Grant Williams, 40, was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison for second-degree assault of a child, to be followed by a year and a half of community custody.

The maximum penalty is 10 years with the state Department of Corrections. The standard range for the crime is about two and a half to three and a half years.

Williams, a National Guardsman who had moved to Chehalis with his girlfriend just months before he was arrested last summer, was convicted by a jury at the end of last month.

The boy lives with his paternal grandmother, and had spent two or three weeks weeks visiting his mother and Williams, the first time they’d had him since they moved back to Washington from southern California.

When he testified, Williams admitted he left a handprint-shaped bruise on the butt of his girlfriend’s 7-year-old, and switched to using a belt because he thought it wouldn’t leave marks.

He suggested some of the other bruises came from when he held the boy’s head under the shower, trying to teach him to wash his own hair. Williams said the child would thrash around and get so combative, sometimes he would simply let go, and the child would fall in the tub.

A social worker testified that when she saw him shortly after he was returned to his grandmother last summer, the youngster’s two black eyes were so swollen, he had to open his eyes wide just to see.

The mother worked at night, and the jury learned Williams would wait until after she left the house to give the child showers.

Williams had just recently returned from deployment in Kosovo, where he said part of his duties were as an interrogator.

He and the child’s mother told the jury the first-grader didn’t know his alphabet, didn’t know his numbers and didn’t know how to clean himself. Williams told the jury he tried to teach him those things during the visit.

Williams told the jury he didn’t think about giving the boy baths instead of showers.

Deputy Prosecutor Colin Hayes today asked the judge, who agreed, that Williams be ordered to get treatment for mental health and anger management.

Defense attorney Mike Underwood told Lawler before the sentence was decided, he thought two and half years in prison was appropriate for his client.

Williams was polite when he addressed the judge.

“Your honor, in light of everything I’m losing, I think eight years is excessive,” Williams said, noting his 19-year career in the military.

As he imposed the sentence, Lawler told Williams part of his reasoning was because of Williams lack of remorse.

‘Your comments bear out, this is still about you, and what you’ve lost, and not about what you did to (the child),” Lawler said. “That’s the problem here. That’s what you don’t seem to get.”

At the end of the hearing, Underwood filed a notice of appeal.
•••

Read the most recent story here

Market Street Market employees talk with a Chehalis police officer today after the store is held up again.

This news story was updated at 3 p.m. and 4:28 p.m.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A male armed with a sword robbed the Market Street Market in Chehalis this morning, the second such hold up at the business in a little more than a week.

“It was the same guy, he was wearing the same thing, the same clothes” owner Danny Kim said. “At least he should have changed his clothes.”

Kim said it happened about 8 o’clock this morning.

It was a similar situation as what occurred at the convenience store between 12th and 13th avenues on South Market Street in Chehalis about 10:30 p.m. on June 18, according to police.

That night, a male, described as possibly in his mid-20s, pointed a roughly two-foot long sword at two clerks and made off with an as-yet undisclosed amount of cash. His face was covered with a bandana.

Today, Kim said he was alone in the store when the robber came in.

“He just walk in with a sword, ‘give me money’,” Kim said. “I give him money, he was out. It was 30 seconds.”

Nobody was injured.

Kim wasn’t working when it happened before, but he saw the images captured by security video of the subject, leading him to think it was the same individual.

Clerk Don Thayer Jr. wasn’t working this morning, but came into the store to talk with his boss and police.

The 43-year-old Chehalis man said he was working when it happened the first time.

The guy came in at closing and sort of ducked down then showed his weapon, Thayer said.

Thayer thought about tackling him, but he kept pointing the sword at him, he said.

“Like I said, let him take what he wants and get out of here, he’ll eventually be caught,” Thayer said.

Kim, who has owned the business since, 2006 said his store hasn’t been robbed before.

“I’ve never heard of anybody around here getting robbed, except the bank,” Kim said.

Chehalis Police Department Deputy Chief Randy Kaut said this afternoon officers have a suspect in custody and are interviewing him now.

Jonathan A. Jamerson, 23, currently staying with a relative in Chehalis, was booked into the Lewis County Jail this afternoon for two counts of first-degree robbery, according to Kaut.

More later

Ronald Brady listens to the jury's verdict this evening

This news story was updated at 11:55 p.m.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A jury found Onalaska resident Ronald A. Brady guilty of second-degree manslaughter today.

The elements of the crime include acting with negligence, failing to even be being aware of the risk death may occur; that being a gross deviation from what a reasonable person would do in the same situation.

Brady, 60, was on trial this week in Lewis County Superior Court for first-degree murder, in the death of 56-year-old Thomas McKenzie of Morton.

Thomas McKenzie

The jury began deliberating about 3:15 p.m. today and came to a verdict by 6 p.m.

They were given instructions to consider both first and second degree murder as well as first and second-degree manslaughter.

There was no finding Brady acted in self defense on the night of April 19, 2010, according to Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Colin Hayes.

Brady admitted firing five or six shots with a .22 caliber rifle, three of them toward a suspected burglar outside of an uninhabited house he owns and has been re-building since a fire in the late 1990s.

Brady admitted when he testified yesterday McKenzie was moving away from him while Brady stood “pretty much” in the garage after he’d opened the garage door to confront what believed were burglars returning from earlier in the day.

He told a detective he didn’t think a .22 had that kind of “stopping power”.

Because the crime was committed with a firearm, Brady faces a mandatory minimum of three years in prison – with no possibility of reduction for any “good” time – along with a standard sentence of between 21 and 27 months, according to Hayes.

After the verdict was read, Brady handed his keys and other items to one of three individuals who have sat behind him throughout the trial.

But Judge Nelson Hunt did not order him taken into custody. Brady was told to return to court next Thursday to learn his sentencing date.

The jury also decided Brady was not guilty of first- or second-degree assault in the case of McKenzie’s wife, Joanna McKenzie who testified she that while she took cover behind a truck in the driveway, she heard the glass in its windshield shot out and felt “air or something” graze her face.

“They didn’t believe a single thing Joanna McKenzie said,” Centralia defense attorney Don Blair said tonight after he and prosecutors met with jurors following their findings.

Defense attorney Don Blair

“The jurors thought he (his client) made some poor decisions and that’s why they found him guilty of the least possible crime with regard to Tom,” Blair said.

Thomas McKenzie died at the scene; of a gunshot that passed through his chest, and through the pulmonary artery that goes to the lungs.

He leaves behind nine children, parents and siblings, some of whom were in the courtroom during the trial.

His brother John McKenzie said he was “not happy” with the jury’s decision and he felt no “closure.” His brother didn’t get a trial as to what he was doing on the property that night, he said.

“Mr. Brady may get out in five years, my brother can’t,” John McKenzie said after the verdict. “He shot him like a dog. He shot him like he was out on a hunting trip.”

John McKenzie’s wife, Aleta McKenzie, described her feelings this way:

“It’s like the people of Lewis County have no respect for human life,” she said. “It’s like their property or belongings are more important than human life.”

The shooting has generated strong opinions on both sides.

After it happened last year, Lewis County Sheriff Steve Mansfield didn’t arrest Brady, announcing he believed the shooting was justified.

Last autumn, prosecutors filed manslaughter charges against Brady and then upgraded them to first-degree murder soon thereafter.

Prosecutors argued it was intentional and premeditated.

Deputy Prosecutor Colin Hayes described Brady as a man who was frustrated and angry about repeated burglaries.

Deputy Prosecutor Colin Hayes

He told his neighbor Elizabeth Nunes earlier that day “nobody gets away with doing this” to him, and he was going to shoot them if they got into his property, Hayes told jurors in his closing statements yesterday.

Brady loaded as much ammunition as his rifle and shotgun could hold and took them to the house on the 2100 block of state Route 508, Hayes said, and waited two hours in the dark hoping burglars would return.

Hayes questioned how Brady could have been afraid, when it was Brady who opened the garage door and began firing after someone had knocked on his door.

“So he switches from defensive to offensive,” Hayes said. “He had a plan the whole day to kill.”

Blair described his client as a man who prepared himself.

Brady discovered he’d been burglarized, and “like a good neighbor” he notified two of neighbors and called the police.

Deputy Duke Adkisson told him it appeared they might return, Blair told the jury.

“Are you going to go and hide, or are you going to prepare yourself,” Blair asked the jury in his closing statements.

The people outside didn’t leave, even after Brady tripped on something inside the house and made noise, Blair said.

Brady testified he opened the garage door planning to shoot out the tires of their truck. He found two flashlights shining in his face, Blair said.

“He shoots into the truck and they do what? They (the flashlights) don’t move,” Blair said. “It’s at that moment, that’s the critical moment.”

His client didn’t know if the intruders were armed and feared for his life, he said.

Deputy Prosecutor Hayes said at the end of today, it’s a fair conclusion, since that’s what the jury decided.

“We respect their decision,” Hayes said. “We respect the whole process of having juries decide issues like this.”
•••

Read some of the previous news stories:

• “Update: Onalaska murder trial” from Friday June 24, 2011 at 1:03 p.m., here

• “Onalaska murder trial: Defendant says he doesn’t know why he fired his gun” from Thursday June 23, 2011, here

• “Onalaska murder trial: Prosecutor: Home owner said he “planned to shoot” burglars” from Wednesday June 22, 2011, here

• “News brief: Onalaska murder trial begins” from Tuesday June 21, 2011, here

• “Onalaska murder trial set for next week” from Thursday June 16, 2011, here

• “News brief: Attorneys argue on allowable questions at upcoming Onalaska murder trial” from Monday Dec. 6, 2010, here

• “Onalaska shooting: Charges upped from manslaughter to first-degree murder” from Monday November 22, 2010, here

• “News brief: Joanna D. McKenzie arrested for drugs in Centralia” from Monday November 22, 2010, here

• “Onalaska man accused in fatal shooting of suspected burglar goes before a judge” from Wednesday Oct. 13, 2010, here

• “Warrant issued: Onalaska burglary suspect a no-show at her sentencing” from  Wednesday Oct. 13, 2010, here

• “Onalaska man charged in April’s fatal shooting of suspected burglar” from Friday Sept. 24, 2010, here

• “When is it OK to use deadly force in Lewis County?: Not so simple to answer, sheriff says” from Thursday July 15, 2010, here

Ronald Brady stands next to a diagram of his house and its driveway.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Ronald Brady spoke to a detective soon after he fired as many as six shots – one fatal – at a pair of suspected burglars outside his Onalaska house.

Lewis County Sheriff’s Office detective Bruce Kimsey: “What, why did you feel you had to shoot at these people?”

Brady: “I have no idea … I’d already shot at their front tires, and they were still pointing their flashlights at me.”

Brady, 60, is on trial for first-degree murder in the death of Thomas McKenzie of Morton and first-degree assault regarding McKenzie’s wife, Joanna McKenzie, on the night of April 19, 2010.

The retired bachelor called 911 himself, telling deputies he stayed overnight at his under-construction house on the 2100 block of state Route 508, because he thought someone had broken into the garage earlier and had arranged items for later retrieval, according to evidence heard in the trial this week in Lewis County Superior Court.

Deputies found fifty-six year-old Thomas McKenzie dead on the ground outside the house.

The father of nine died of a gunshot that passed through his chest, and through the pulmonary artery that goes to the lung, pathologist, Dr. Gina Fino told the jury yesterday.

Detectives recovered a Remington .22 caliber rifle and four spent casings, according to witness testimony.

Brady hasn’t testified; his words were heard in a taped statement played yesterday for the jury of six men and six women.

In the statement, Brady tells Kimsey it was about 9 p.m. when he got up to stretch his legs; he saw a light shining underneath the garage door, from a vehicle that arrived. The lights went out, he said.

“I decided, I got my .22 with me, so I would just wait and see what happened here,” Brady told Kimsey.

He said he heard a loud knocking on the door, but nobody called out to him to say anything.

“I thought, oh, I’m gonna open the garage door and shoot out the tires,” Brady said.

Brady described he was positioned “pretty much” in the garage, shooting from the hip and crouching.

He thought he fired two or three times at the truck’s tires and may have put one or two rounds through the windshield of the truck that was in his driveway, he said.

One person (later determined to be Thomas McKenzie with a flashlight) was to his left near the garage and the other at the back end of the truck, he said.

Kimsey: “The man is moving in the direction of where the woman is?”

“Brady: “Yeah”

Brady: “I think I shot a total of three in his direction”

Brady: “I might have shot once again at the windshield of the pickup. I might have shot at the cab of the pickup, or I might have shot at the tires.”

Brady told Kimsey he wasn’t taking any chances, they might be high on meth.

Kimsey: “Did you say anything to them this entire time?”

Brady: “No”

He put the rifle down and called 911.

The trial resumes this morning.
•••

Read about the opening day of the trial here