Lewis County Sirens.com

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

The Washington State Patrol has found that inattention on the part of the driver caused the accident on Tuesday night that sent a school bus loaded with teenagers across a two-lane highway and 50 to 75 feet down an embankment into a swamp near Toledo.

Driver Ronnie H. Withrow, 53, will be ticketed for running the stop sign at the top of the Interstate 5 freeway off ramp, state patrol spokesperson Trooper Will Finn said this morning.

Withrow initially stated the brakes on the bus failed, but an inspection found no problems with the brakes, the state patrol reported yesterday.

None of the passengers were seriously injured, and Withrow has been praised by responders for guiding the bus through a narrow space between a sign and a guard rail as it traveled downhill.

Finn said this morning he had no information on what Withrow was distracted by.

“I just know the investigation has come to a conclusion and that’s what the trooper has decided,” Finn said.

Finn said hoped to learn more from the investigating trooper when the trooper comes back on duty this afternoon.

Withrow had been placed on administrative leave from the Winlock School District. He has not returned a phone call seeking comment.

Finn did say no skid marks were found at the scene, and it appeared Withrow shouted for everyone to hold on after he’d already gone through the stop sign. He added it was concluded the driver did not fall asleep, as he took the exit.

After a commercial vehicle inspector found no mechanical failures or defects with its braking system, the investigating trooper had to go back and ask more questions, Finn said.

Withrow began driving a school bus for Winlock in September, and drove for other schools before that, according to District Superintendent Shannon Criss.

Criss was unavailable this morning, but issued a prepared statement in which she said she is reviewing with legal counsel on the matter. And, she noted: “Student safety is always our primary concern.”
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For background, read “School bus wrecks off I-5 into swamp near Toledo” from Wednesday April 10, 2013 at 7:28 a.m., here

Updated at 1:11 p.m.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

A 57-year-old man is dead after a canoe capsized in a creek near Vader last night.

Rescuers were called around 8:30 p.m. by the man’s wife who said they had been canoeing in Stillwater Creek when the two-person craft tipped over near the 1400 block of state Route 506, west of town, according to authorities.

“She was able to get to shore and he was missing,” Vader area Fire Chief Richard Underdahl said.

Underdahl described the creek as very full, very swift, about 25 feet across in places with steep brush-covered banks.

The 38-year-old woman said she last saw her husband hanging onto the canoe near the bank and then he disappeared, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.

Vader area volunteer firefighters – Cowlitz-Lewis Fire District 20, formerly known as Lewis County Fire District 7 – were assisted by responders, including swift water rescue technicians, from Lewis County Fire Districts 2 and 15, the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office and Cowlitz County Fire District 6 out of Castle Rock.

They found the partially submerged canoe and then about 10 minutes later, discovered the victim submerged, face down against a log about 100 yards upstream, according to the sheriff’s office.

The water temperature was measured at 43 degrees.

The victim is identified as John Handel. An autopsy is scheduled for this afternoon.

The wife was taken care of by homeowners near the creek and checked by paramedics, according to Underdahl.

Chief Brown said the couple started out near their home on the 100 block of Brim Road and planned to travel to the Brim Creek Bridge.

Neither Brown nor Underdahl had an answer as to why the couple was in the water so late in the evening. Neither were wearing life jackets.

“We’re just sorry the outcome was what it was,” Underdahl said. “We volunteer to help our neighbors, it’s tough to deal with things like this.”

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – There will be no trial to shed light on what signs of abuse she saw or didn’t see in the weeks before her 2-year-old daughter died while in the care of her new live-in boyfriend.

Becky M. Heupel plans to plead guilty.

The 31-year-old Centralia woman was in Lewis County Superior Court this afternoon where attorneys told a judge they’d reached a “resolution” in the case.

Becky M. Heupel

The boyfriend James M. Reeder was sent to prison last month after pleading guilty to homicide by abuse, second-degree assault, two counts of first-degree rape of a child and possession of methamphetamine.

The toddler, Koralynn Fister, died from drowning and head trauma about 10 weeks after Reeder moved into the north Centralia household.

Lewis County prosecutors charged Heupel criminally, alleging she was warned Reeder was an abuser and chose to put her relationship with him before the well-being of her child.

Heupel is charged specifically with second-degree criminal mistreatment, allegedly recklessly creating an imminent and substantial risk of death or great bodily harm through her inaction.

Koralynn died on May 24 of last year.

The deal offered by prosecutors is that Heupel pleads guilty as charged and they will recommend she go to prison for a year and one day.

While the maximum penalty is five years, the standard sentencing range for someone with no criminal history is six to 12 months.

Her defense attorney, Paul Strophy, said part of the motivation is there are risks in going to trial. Prosecutors were threatening to upgrade the charges if they did, he said.

Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Shane O’Rourke said part of the agreement is Heupel must make a straight guilty plea, not a so-called Alford plea in which the defendant pleads guilty without admitting wrongdoing.

“This is one where we want her to take responsibility,” O’Rourke said.

Reeder’s plea was an Alford plea.

Attorneys on both sides have agreed to recommend a sentence one day higher than the top of the standard sentence range, so Heupel can serve her time in state prison instead of in the Lewis County Jail.

Strophy didn’t go into detail about why that was preferable, but mentioned the opportunity for his client to earn more “good time” to possibly get out early. O’Rourke said prosecutors don’t mind if Heupel does her time with the state Department of Corrections, as that benefits the county budget by avoiding jail costs.

The hearing at which Heupel is scheduled to plead guilty will be held a week from tomorrow in front of Judge James Lawler.
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For background, read “Koralynn Fister: Dead toddler’s mother pleads innocent to putting little one in harm’s way” from Friday March 22, 2013, here

Responders wait for busses from Toledo and Winlock school districts to transport kids to their respective schools after determining none needed to go to the hospital. / Courtesy photo by Kevin Anderson

Updated at 6:22 p.m.

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

A school bus carrying the Toledo-Winlock High School soccer team ran off Interstate 5 last night, coming to rest about 75 feet away at the bottom of a ravine.

No serious injuries were reported, and responders found only superficial injuries, according to Lewis County Fire District 15.

Assistant Fire Chief Kevin Anderson said the bus was carrying 37 individuals.

Firefighters called at 10:05 p.m. found the bus wheels down in a muddy, grassy area to the northeast of the exit 63 freeway interchange.

The bus was northbound and exiting the freeway, when the driver began shouting for everyone to hold on, according a spokesperson for the Washington State Patrol.

The 2009 Thomas full-sized yellow bus traveled through the stop sign at the end of the ramp and continued on, according to the state patrol.

“The driver said he went to hit the brakes, there were no brakes,” Lewis County Medic One Paramedic Jim Akramoff. said. “They just went straight, over 505, there’s a pretty good embankment there.”

The team was returning home from a game in Vancouver, Anderson said.

Anderson noted in a news release it sounded as though the driver did a tremendous job helping keep the situation from being any worse than it was.

Driver Ronnie H. Withrow, 53, missed a sign and a guard rail, navigating a fairly narrow space between the two, according to responders.

About 25 firefighters from Districts 15 and 2, as well as Lewis County Medic 1 paramedics responded, using lighting from their rigs to illuminate the area.

Responders went seat to seat on the bus evaluating the patients, Akramoff said. It took just over an hour from the time they arrived until the youngsters were taken away by other school busses, he said.

“Believe it or not, it went very smooth,” Akramoff said.

The passengers were described as 32 players, mostly teenage boys, along with two coaches and two managers.

“Pretty much bumps and bruises,” Akramoff said. “I’m sure some will be sore today.”

Anderson said there was no obvious damage to the bus.

The bus is owned and operated by the Winlock School District, according to Anderson.

District Superintendent Shannon Criss issued a formal statement noting the district is fortunate to have competent, caring and professional staff who remained calm, and made sure the students remained safe.

The state patrol is investigating, inspecting the bus today.

Courtesy photo Washington State Patrol.

Mark and Lisa Solomon are both recovering from gunshot wounds

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CENTRALIA – They call it the devil gun.

Mark and Lisa Solomon were both momentarily stunned by a loud bang and ringing as they sat inside their Ford Ranger pickup.

She saw his bloody right hand and didn’t realize she’d been hit in the upper thigh by a 9 mm round.

He saw his wife of 15 years holding her left leg and realized she’d been shot.

“I was worried about her,” he said. “I was trying to put a sweatshirt on it.”

His hand was just numb, he said. Mark Solomon is left handed.

One bullet, two holes and injuries that are still healing.

It happened in late February, in the parking lot at Sunbird Shopping Center in Chehalis.

The 40-year-old Centralia man had just purchased a new holster for his handgun and was behind the wheel of his truck, his wife in the passenger seat, he said. Before they drove away, he was putting his pistol into what he called a paddle holster and the gun discharged, he said.

The bullet traveled through his right hand and lodged in her thigh.

Lisa Solomon spent five days at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. Her femur was broken in three places, she said.

Doctors installed a titanium rod that extends from her hip to her knee. It will be about two more weeks before she’s allowed to put any weight on it, she said. For now, she uses a walker.

Mark Solomon’s right hand is still somewhat swollen, and it’s sore when he moves his fingers, he said.

He was only off work for a week. He’s part of a crew that makes bread for Subway restaurants at Millard Refrigeration in Centralia.

Both are grateful the other wasn’t hurt worse, but they’re puzzled about the criminal charge he now faces.

He is charged in Chehalis Municipal Court with reckless endangerment, a gross misdemeanor punishable by up to 364 days in jail and / or a fine of $10,250. He pleaded not guilty last week.

It was an accident, they said.

“What people don’t understand, is I’m legal to have a loaded pistol,” Mark Solomon said.

“The round never left the vehicle, so it’s not reckless,” he said. “It’s not like it ended up in Centralia, or blew through the windshield, or whizzed by a kid’s leg.”

He said he’s had a concealed weapon permit since 2008, as well as for a few years in the mid-1990s. He just got the 9 mm Kel-Tec three or four months ago.

He’s not impressed with the weapon, or the hard plastic holster he bought.

The pistol has an internal automatic safety, he said. It’s not like his other handgun, with an external safety he can turn on or off, he said.

“What I did, I grabbed the butt of the pistol and put it in, and something got the trigger,” he said. “I didn’t touch the trigger, it caught on something.”

Chehalis police have said they didn’t find any intent to do harm,  but that no one should be handling a loaded firearm in a public place like a busy parking lot, nor should a gun’s barrel be pointed at anyone  unless one intends to shoot them.

Given a chance to do that day over, Mark Solomon said he’d probably wait until he got home, and unload his weapon before checking out how it fit in the holster, he said.

“It was kind of like a new toy, I wanted to try it out,” he said.

But that doesn’t change, that what occurred was an accident, he said.

Lisa Solomon has a doctor’s appointment on April 24, when she expects to be told she can walk without the aid of a walker.

Mark Solomon will be back in court, with a public defender that same day.

They’re both anxious for the outcome of his court case.

What they do know for sure though, is they don’t want the Kel-Tec back in their lives.

“If I get the gun back, I’m gonna get rid of it,” he said. “I don’t want it around.”

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The suspected Centralia jewelry store thief who was shot pleaded not guilty today in Lewis County Superior Court.

Justin D. McPherson, 29, remains held on $100,000 bail.

McPherson is believed to be one of two subjects who fled Salewsky’s Jewelry shop on North Tower Avenue on the morning of March 20, escaping through an opening cut into the wall of an adjacent vacant business after the shop owner’s son awakened by noise, came downstairs and fired one round.

McPherson is charged with one count of second-degree burglary as well as residential burglary because the upstairs apartment where Jeremy Salewsky was sleeping is connected to the showroom by an open stairway.

Police say McPherson is from Auburn; an address in his court file shows he lives in Federal Way.

Centralia police arrested McPherson last week as he was getting released from a Tacoma hospital. His girlfriend and mother of his two children was arrested days before when she went to visit him at the hospital. Jennifer Nordyke, 30, who is suspected of being one of two female getaway drivers, is also being held in the Lewis County Jail.

Police have said they don’t know how the burglars knew how the shop shared an inside wall with an unoccupied business.

Charging documents in the case offer a few new details about the break-in. The following are some of them:

Detectives retrieved a two-foot crowbar from the scene, and believe it was used to break through the drywall.

The younger Salewsky told police when he went downstairs, he was startled by a male in a blue hooded sweatshirt he saw grabbing merchandise from an open showcase next to the hole in the wall. He fired at the subject with a Colt .45 pistol, but didn’t know if he hit him.

Salewski stated the male then left through the hole.

A witness smoking a cigarette behind the Olympic Club at about 6:45 a.m., told police he saw two masked males who were running and got into two cars parked in the south lot of the railroad station.

The male who got into a red Mercedes was holding his stomach as he ran, the witness said.

Centralia Police Department detective Sgt. Pat Fitzgerald previously said McPherson was shot in the lower back, at the belt line. The thieves left a trail of dropped jewelry, according to Fitzgerald.

Charging documents continue, to indicate that police got a break in the case when an off-duty detective spoke a few days later with an off-duty Tacoma police officer and learned a male with a gunshot wound was dropped off at a Tacoma hospital by a female in a red Mercedes the morning of the burglary.

Surveillance video confirmed that, and showed McPherson being escorted into the hospital by a male. Detectives confirmed Nordyke as the registered owner of a red Mercedes.

When police contacted Nordyke at the hospital on March 22, a bag she had with her was searched; the jewelry inside it was taken as evidence. She said she’d recently found it.

McPherson has a 2006 conviction for possession of stolen property, as well as three three eluding convictions. He is represented by Chehalis attorney Ken Johnson.

Their trials are set for the week of May 20.
•••

For background, read “Breaking news: Centralia jewelry shop burglary interrupted with gunshot” from Wednesday March 20, 2013 at 10:27 a.m., here

Close up view of the hole cut in the drywall between Salewsky’s Jewelry and neighboring business. / Courtesy photo by Centralia Police Department

Ricky A. Riffe consults with his lawyer during a hearing today in Lewis County Superior Court.

Updated at 3:40 p.m.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – There was a “drop dead” date for the trial of accused double kidnapper, murderer Ricky A. Riffe to begin, however, testing of recently rediscovered evidence has prompted yet another postponement.

Riffe, 54, was charged last summer in the 1985 abduction and shooting of Ed and Wilhelmina Maurin, an elderly couple who lived in Ethel.

He was in Lewis County Superior Court today when attorneys, and the judge, agreed to delay the trial from May until this coming October.

Defense attorney John Crowley made the request and Lewis County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Will Halstead said he had no objection.

Crowley said that about a week ago, the sheriff’s office discovered hair from the car and also a cigarette butt found in a trash can in the Maurin’s bathroom, and wanted to get the items tested for DNA.

The Maurins weren’t smokers, he said.

Judge Richard Brosey recalled he had previously set a firm deadline, noting some of the victims’ family are concerned they’re not getting any younger. But he agreed to the change in dates.

“If there’s any other evidence that needs to be tested, find it and get it done,” Brosey told prosecutors.

His client is happy to wait for the results, according to Crowley.

“He said, ‘my DNA is not on that cigarette, get it tested’,” Crowley said.

The former Lewis County resident is charged with two counts each of first-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping and first-degree robbery, as well as one count of burglary. He has been held at the Lewis County Jail since his arrest in July at his home in Alaska.

A pre-trial hearing previously scheduled for the last two days of this week was reset for the morning of Sept. 6.

Essentially an after thought, attorneys also asked to postpone the trial date setting in a new case recently filed against Riffe. He was charged earlier this year with two instances of allegedly raping and fondling a young relative almost 30 years ago. Not guilty pleas have been entered in that case.

The murder trial is now scheduled to begin the week of Oct. 7 and last three to  four weeks. Prosecutors now say they have subpoenaed 200 witnesses

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