Lewis County Sirens.com

James Maurice Reeder enters a packed Chehalis courtroom to be sentenced for the death of 2-year-old Koralynn Fister.

Updated at 1:56 p.m. and 4:22 p.m.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – James M. Reeder was given 37 and a half years to life in prison this morning for the rape and death of his girlfriend’s 2-year-old daughter last year at her Centralia home.

The 26-year-old Centralia resident made no statements to the judge before the sentence was handed down.

Lewis County Superior Court Judge James Lawler gave Reeder the maximum allowed, given the the charges Reeder was convicted of pursuant to a plea agreement. While Reeder had pleaded guilty, he did so without admitting any wrongdoing.

The judge said he would have given more time if he could.

“I didn’t hear, but I can imagine, her screams and her cries as she was tortured by you,” Lawler said. “I wish I wasn’t limited by the statute, I wish I wasn’t limited by these charges.”

Koralynn Fister

Reeder kept his head turned downward and his slightly hunched back to the benches filled with family members, police detectives and others.

Koralynn Fister died last May in Centralia. Reeder claimed he stepped away to get a towel while giving her a bath and returned to find her face down in the tub.

The little girl died from drowning and four severe blows to her head, prosecutors said today. Authorities arrested Reeder that night after evidence of sexual assault was discovered.

Defense attorney David Arcuri noted that advocacy was of very little value at this stage, but asked for “tempered justice” and a sentence with a minimum of 28 years.

He noted the plea deal included trade offs, with a benefit to the state in that it avoided a protracted trial and the secondary impacts upon responders who dealt with the little girl.

Koralynn’s mother Becky Heupel sat next to her daughter’s father in the front row behind prosecutors.

In a statement read to the court for her, Heupel spoke of how she felt betrayed by her then live-in boyfriend pretending to help her with her child.

“You made me doubt my own sanity by your evil act,” Heupel wrote. “I pray that God gives you whatever he feels you deserve.”

Another victim’s advocate read a statement from Koralynn’s father, David Fister.

Fister said nothing short of life in prison would suffice, calling Reeder a coward who preyed upon the weak.

“Koralynn meant everything to me and my family,” the advocate read.

The case began on the afternoon of May 24 when Reeder carried the naked and unbreathing child to neighbors across the street from her house off of West Oakview Avenue asking them to call 911 while he attempted CPR.

The mother and her 4-year-old daughter had left the home about three hours earlier.

Lewis County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Will Halstead told the court today the toddler’s body temperature was roughly 85 degrees, that she was dead. Information from the investigation would lead a reasonable person to believe an extended period of time had passed, Halstead said.

Evidence indicated she was penetrated by some object both in front and behind that day and another time previously, according to Halstead.

Her rectum was ruptured and her body had injuries such as bruises including on her hands, missing toenails and her bottom was basically raw down to the muscle, consistent with rubbing over time, he said.

Reeder had explanations such as the dog jumping on her toes, the child running around barefoot and also said that she would slide down the gate to her bedroom, Halstead said.

The defendant had moved into the household about 10 weeks earlier and soon began isolating the toddler; suggesting he would take care of the 2-year-old and the mother could take care of her older daughter, Halstead told the judge.

“He’d change her diapers and give her baths, so nobody else really knew what was happening to Koralynn during this time frame,” he said.

Reeder pleaded guilty in January, after a deal was struck, to homicide by abuse, second-degree assault, two counts of first-degree rape of a child and possession of methamphetamine. He made a so-called Alford plea in which he acknowledged a jury hearing the evidence would likely convict him, but admitted no guilt.

The unemployed former floor installer subsequently attempted to withdraw his plea, but the judge denied his request.

Prosecutors today recommended the high end of the standard sentencing range for each of the offenses, to run concurrently.

Halstead asked for, and the judge agreed to, 450 months which is 37 and a half years, for the homicide by abuse.

The sentence for the rape conviction is for an indeterminate length of time with a maximum of life. A board, like the former parole board, will be responsible for deciding when and if he gets released after he’s served the minimum number of years.

Homicide by abuse is described by prosecutors as repeated assaults or torture that ends in the death of a child. It has the same maximum penalty, life in prison, and the same standard sentencing range as first-degree murder, according to Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer.

Halstead noted Reeder didn’t cooperate with the pre-sentencing review conducted by the state Department of Corrections.

Reeder has no felony criminal history.

Judge Lawler noted, but didn’t read aloud, letters from Reeder’s sister, mother and grandmother, saying he accepts the person sitting before him is not the person they know.

Lawler told Reeder, after reciting graphic excerpts from charging documents, he should be thankful for the deal his attorney managed to get him, with the dismissal of so-called aggravators such as the victim being especially vulnerable.

Lawler said he agreed a jury would have likely found him guilty.

“Had those aggravating factors been found, I would have imposed a sentence that would have been probably 100 years,” he said.

Family and others listen as James Reeder is sentenced for child rape, homicide by abuse, assault and possession of methamphetamine.

•••

For background, see selected previous news stories:

• “Update: Centralia police investigating death of toddler, arrest one” from Thursday May 24, 2012, here

• “Centralia toddler death: Sibling taken into protective custody” from Friday May 25, 2012, here

• “Breaking news: Mother’s boyfriend held for investigation of rape, murder of Centralia child” from Friday May 25, 2012, here

• “Mother’s boyfriend now faces drug, rape and homicide charges in death of toddler” from Tuesday May 29, 2012, here

• “Father of Centralia toddler who died speaks out” from Saturday June 2, 2012, here

• “Mental evaluation: Suspect in death, rape of Centralia toddler found competent for trial” from Tuesday July 10, 2012, here

• “Koralynn Fister: Attorneys to argue over evidence prior to homicide by abuse trial” from Thursday December 13, 2012, here

• “Defendant in Koralynn Fister death pleads guilty” from Wednesday January 9, 2013, here

Updated at 1:19 p.m.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

A 53-year-old man is being airlifted after a gunshot accident during target practice with his 12-year-old son near Vader.

Deputies were called shortly after 12:30 p.m. to the 200 block of Telegraph Road.

“They had some sort of problem with the gun and were trying to fix it when the man was shot in the hand,” Cmdr. Steve Aust said. “It was a ‘through and through’.”

The boy was standing nearby when it happened and got some scrapes, possibly from getting hit with bone fragments from his father, Aust said.

Aust said the hand injury itself is not life threatening, but there were concerns about the amount of blood loss.

Just two days ago, a 40-year-old man accidentally fired a 9 mm bullet through his hand and into his wife’s thigh outside a shopping center in Chehalis.

Police said the Rochester resident had just purchased a new holster and was putting his gun inside it in the parking lot at Sunbird Shopping Center.

Lena A. Castillo pleads guilty to a lesser charge today in connection with stabbing another woman outside a Chehalis bar.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The 24-year-old Centralia woman who pulled out a knife after she was assaulted by another bar patron last month accepted a plea deal in which she will spend six months in jail.

Lena A. Castillo was charged with first-degree assault after the January 12 fight outside Garbe’s in Chehalis; the 22-year-old victim was treated for six stab wounds.

But today in Lewis County Superior Court, Senior Deputy Prosecutor Will Halstead said second-degree assault was the more appropriate charge.

“Had this gone to trial, she would have had a self defense claim,” Halstead told the judge.

Halstead said surveillance video shows Ashley Stewart was the primary aggressor, that she approached Castillo, she struck Castillo twice and then they “basically grabbed each other by the hair.” The fight didn’t last very long, Halstead said.

Stewart admitted she picked up a pair of brass knuckles she found sitting on a table and then used them in the short brawl, according to Halstead.

The end of the video showed the victim on the ground, on her back with Castillo on top of her continuing to stab her, he said.

“We all know you can’t bring a gun or a knife to a fist fight,” Halstead said.

Defense attorney Michael Underwood called it a “sucker punch” and said it galled him Stewart could claim to be the victim.

His client just reacted, Underwood said. Her head was pulled down and she was hit from behind, he said.

However, had she gone to trial and lost, she faced as long as 10 years in prison, he said.

“I think, from her perspective, she’d say I’d like to go to trial, but you’ve got a 2-year-old child and a 4-year-old child who would teenagers when she got out,” Underwood said.

Castillo pleaded guilty this afternoon to second-degree assault. She chose not to address the court when the judge inquired.

She didn’t know brass knuckles were used, according to her lawyer. Halstead said she suffered a scratch to the back of her neck, although police previously said she suffered some bruising on her head.

Brass knuckles are illegal to possess. The knife was described as a small lighter-knife combination with a double-edged blade.

Stewart was treated for four stab wounds to her stomach and one to each leg and was expected to make a full recovery.

Stewart told police she’d been jumped previously by Castillo and other women; the disagreement was related to a male they both previously had a relationship with, according to Halstead.

Because Castillo has no prior felonies, the standard sentence under state law has to be between three and nine months.

Both attorneys asked Judge James Lawler to give her six months.

“It’s one thing to react to getting punched,” Lawler said. “It’s another to pull a knife out and start sticking somebody.”

And then he agreed to sentence Castillo to six months in jail, with credit for 46 days already served.

Lawler ordered her to pay about $2,400 in fees, get one year of so-called community custody upon her release and have no contact with Stewart for 10 years.
•••

For background, read:

• “Centralia woman charged in bar fight stabbing” from Monday January 14, 2013 at 9:47 p.m., here

Updated

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Two people were shot when a man holstering his pistol outside a Chehalis retailer apparently caused it to discharge today.

Police and aid were called about 1:45 p.m. to the parking lot at Sunbird Shopping Center on the 1700 block of North National Avenue.

The preliminary investigation indicates a gentleman had just purchased a new holster and was putting his gun inside it, Chehalis Police Department Deputy Chief Randy Kaut said.

“It accidentally discharged and went through his other hand and (into) his wife’s leg,” Kaut said.

Kaut said he understood the man was standing next to his truck and his wife was seated inside.

Both were taken by ambulance to Providence Centralia Hospital. Chehalis Fire Department Capt. Casey Beck said the injuries appeared to be non-life threatening.

The couple are in their 40s and from the Centralia-Rochester area, according to police.

Detective Sgt. Gary Wilson said the 9 mm bullet was lodged in the woman’s thigh, and seems to have broken her leg.

She was transferred to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle for surgery, he said.

Wilson said he’s assuming the husband had his finger on the trigger.

While it appears to be an accident, it came out of ignoring basic firearm safety rules, according to Wilson.

No one should be handling a loaded firearm in a public place like a busy parking lot, nor should they ever point a gun at something they don’t intend to shoot, he said.

“You just don’t do these things; you shouldn’t,” he said. “I’m not here to pass judgement. It is what it is.”

Wilson said he planned to let the couple “get fixed up” before he takes a look at any possible violations of the law.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Prosecutors will be notifying a 27-year-old Vader man they’ve decided not to charge him in his father’s November death, a death that occurred two days after Travis M. Myers shoved his 52-year-old father who fell and hit his head on a concrete sidewalk.

It’s just not clear if the injury killed him.

Michael K. Myers, 52, passed away on Thanksgiving Day at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle where he had been airlifted following his injury outside a Morton motel.

Police at the time said the son had stepped in between his parents during a fight. The mother had just gotten arrested for allegedly being drunk behind the wheel of a car and the father was described as stumbling down drunk.

Lewis County Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecutor Brad Meagher said the autopsy report came back and indicated Michael K. Myers died from a brain aneurysm, a burst blood vessel in his head.

“We can’t link it for sure,” Meagher said this morning.

The King County Medical Examiner’s Office concluded the senior Myers died from a brain hemorrhage. It’s unknown if the external events contributed to a rupture of the aneurysm, according to the death certificate.

The death certificate was finalized late last month; Meagher notified the Morton Police Department on Friday he is declining to charge a crime in the case.

The family is from Vader and the two men had gone to the Seasons Motel to pick up the mother who had taken a room there after her arrest by a trooper.

Travis Myers was arrested for second-degree assault the day after the incident, and the prosecutor’s office asked a judge to release him on a $25,000 unsecured bond as they contemplated a possible charge of  second-degree manslaughter.

Meagher said part of his decision involved the issue of self defense and defense of others. Police reports indicated the father shoved the mother and then the son shoved the father. And, the father had also fallen down twice earlier that night, Meagher said.

“That, combined with the forensic problem, we can’t justify charging the kid,” Meagher said.

Meagher said this morning he will be contacting the young man with the news.

The underlying cause of death is listed as a probable cerebral artery aneurysm; the manner of death will remain listed as undetermined, according to the KCME Office.

According to the National Institutes of Health, it’s not clear exactly what causes aneurysms; some are present at birth.
•••

For background, read “Vader man released from jail as prosecutor ponders charges in father’s death” from Tuesday November 27, 2012, here

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Prosecutors alleged in Lewis County Superior Court yesterday that murder defendant Ricky A. Riffe raped his 9-year-old step-daughter 28 years ago, filing new charges for a crime that has a possible penalty of life in prison.

Riffe’s attorney is calling it a ploy to smear his client, in a small community that is closely following the news of Riffe’s upcoming double murder trial.

Riffe, 54, was returned to Lewis County from his home in Alaska last summer when Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer charged him in the December 1985 abduction and slaying of Ed and Wilhelmina Maurin, an elderly couple who lived in Ethel.

While not exactly a cold case because Riffe and his now-deceased brother were longtime primary suspects, the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office in conjunction with a newly elected prosecutor stepped up a re-investigation, noting that fear of the brothers had kept many witnesses from coming forward when the crimes occurred.

The two men moved to Alaska in 1987, according to the sheriff.

The sheriff’s office has said it believes that on Dec. 19, 1985 the brothers somehow got into the couple’s home, and then forced them to drive to a bank in Chehalis to withdraw $8,500 before shooting them in the backs with a shotgun.

The bodies of the Maurins, Ed, 81 and Wilhelmina, 83, were found on Christmas Eve 1985 dumped off a logging road outside Adna.

Riffe is charged with two counts each of first-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping and first-degree robbery, as well as one count of burglary.

His trial is scheduled to begin in May and last as long as a month.

Yesterday, in Lewis County Superior Court in Chehalis, Meyer told the judge Riffe is now charged with two incidents of child sex abuse, one from 1984 and the other from 1986.

Judge Richard Brosey read the charges aloud, advised Riffe they are separate from the other matter and that he is presumed innocent. He asked Riffe how he pled.

Defense attorney John Crowley jumped up and objected to the late filing of charges beyond the statute of limitations.

Crowley asked the judge to enter not guilty pleas on behalf of his client, and all agreed to revisit the matter after the murder trial ends.

Meyer, outside the courtroom, said the statute of limitations doesn’t apply because Riffe had left the state.

The allegations were investigated by police at the time and no criminal charges were filed, according to both Meyer and Crowley.

“It was investigated then, it came up again during this investigation,” Meyer said. “We got some new information.”

In Washington, all crimes except murder have a statute of limitations, according to Crowley. It’s a limit on the amount of time that can pass beyond which prosecutors can’t file criminal charges against a person, he said.

Crowley, a Seattle-based attorney, said it’s true if a person moves out of state that stops the clock, as long as authorities don’t know where they went.

But the sheriff’s office knew the brothers moved to Alaska, and contacted them in 1993, Crowley said.

“They interviewed him and his brother, it’s no secret where he was,” he said.

Judge Brosey has already said more than once the court plans to bring in an extra large number of potential jurors for the murder trial, to allow for the amount of pre-trial publicity the case has generated.

The most serious of the new allegations is that shortly after the victim turned 9, her mother was gone from the home and she was told to keep that “side of the bed warm.” Charging documents state she awoke to Riffe raping her.

The girl left the room with an excuse and then slept on the floor of her brother’s bedroom, according to the documents.

For that, Riffe is charged with what was then called statutory rape.

The second count, then called indecent liberties, is in connection with when she was 10 years old and Riffe allegedly fondling her.

Riffe denies any sexual contact, according to charging documents.

The hearing yesterday continued with tentative scheduling in April for two days of pre-trial hearings and deadlines decided for the submission of pre-trial motions.

Riffe remains held in the Lewis County Jail on $5 million bail.
•••

For background, read “Man held in 1985 slayings of Ethel couple now accused of child sex abuse from nearly 30 years ago” from Friday February 22, 2013 at 11:24 a.m., here

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A Centralia area couple who relinquished 25 horses and 50 goats last week were in court yesterday in connection with a charge of second-degree animal cruelty.

Gerald D. Specht, 65, and his wife Wendy Specht, 58, have both pleaded not guilty and are scheduled to return to Lewis County District Court on March 13 for a hearing.

It wasn’t so much the animals were thin, but they were living in horrible conditions, according to Lewis County Code Enforcement Supervisor Bill Teitzel.

Teitzel described the horses’ feeding area as littered with obstacles such as barbed wire and finding injuries to the horses’ feet and legs. When Teitzel visited the property, he found about 10 of the goats inside the darkened remnants of a house, he said.

The floor was covered with mud and animal waste, he said.

The Spechts themselves are living in a tent as their home burned several years ago, Teitzel said.

The property is on the 600 block of Teitzel Road east of Centralia.

“My take on this, is the people were overwhelmed,” Teitzel said. “But I think they ended up taking responsibility.”

The couple previously lived in a recreational vehicle, but code enforcement had found issues with their sewage set up, he said.

The county had been monitoring the situation since October and when they visited on Feb. 13, found two dead horses not properly disposed of, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.

Teitzel and sheriff’s Cmdr. Steve Aust described visits last week which included the state veterinarian who found one horse so diseased it had to be euthanized.

A search warrant was served at the property a week ago Friday.

They didn’t have anyone to help to deal with the problems, according to Teitzel.

The Washington State Livestock Coalition persuaded the Spechts to give up the animals. The horses were removed to Pierce County where they were to be cared for. The plan was to keep the goats in Lewis County, where there are many options for finding takers, he said.

The couple were cited by code enforcement for solid waste issues, failure to bury a dead animal. Teitzel also was going to make a referral call to Adult Protective Services for the couple themselves, he said.

The Spechts yesterday after court said they had no comment, that any comment should come through their attorney.

They are each charged with one count of second-degree animal cruelty, alleging at the very least they knowingly allowed an animal to live under conditions that caused unnecessary pain. It is a gross misdemeanor with a maximum penalty of 364 days in jail or a $5,000 fine or both.

•••

Revised Code of Washington: Animal cruelty in the second degree (owner): RCW 16.52.207