Lewis County Sirens.com

Lewis County Sheriff's Office Chief Criminal Deputy Gene Seiber describes the search effort to family and friends of the occupants of the missing Cessna late this afternoon at the Morton airport

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

MORTON – The lone helicopter scanning the hills for a missing Chehalis-based Cessna in East Lewis County parked at 5 p.m. but search and rescue teams on the ground expected to stay out a couple more hours tonight.

Lewis County Sheriff’s Office Chief Criminal Deputy Gene Seiber was heading up the effort at Strom Field in Morton.

Seiber said this evening he’s pretty certain they’ve narrowed down the location to a three-mile area northeast of Morton.

“The problem is, we’ve had snow up there, several inches today,” Seiber said.

The twin-engine plane is white, and the weather is bad.

The Cessna 340, owned by the Chehalis-based Pacific Cataract and Laser Institute, left the Chehalis-Centralia AIrport this morning heading for Lewiston, Idaho.

The pilot reported to air traffic control one engine was down and they were headed back to Chehalis, but then radio contact was lost about 7:45 a.m., according to a spokesperson for the aviation division of Washington State Department of Transportation.

Pacific Cataract keeps a handful of planes at the Chehalis airport to fly surgeons to satellite clinics.

The pilot is Ken Sabin and the two passengers are Rod Rinta and Dr. Paul Shenk, according to Debbie Eldredge of Pacific Cataract.

At about noontime today, a sheriff’s office spokesperson reported a signal had been picked up in the Mossyrock area, but Seiber said he didn’t think it was what it first seemed.

They believe the twin-engine plane is about 10 miles northeast of Morton, based on information from the Federal Aviation Administration, where it was was when it lost radio contact and where loggers heard a plane engine this morning, he said.

It’s an area with extremely steep terrain, according to Seiber.

Dan Foster, of Farm and Forest Helicopters out of Napavine, was one of three men in the air in the air today. An expected Navy helicopter from Whidbey Island didn’t end up  joining the search, he said.

“It was really windy and nasty up there,” Foster said. “Really windy.”

A group of 10 men – family and friends of the plane’s occupants Seiber said – arrived to the Morton airfield late this afternoon. An AMR ambulance with a paramedic was stationed there from about noon on, parked and waiting in the drizzle.

Seiber said about two dozen people have been traveling the back roads all day, scanning the area with binoculars. They include members of Packwood Search and Rescue, Lewis County ATV SAR and about 10 employees of West Fork Timber who were working in the area.

Seiber is in charge of incident command for the search and rescue volunteers. The aviation division of Washington State Department of Transportation was coordinating the air search.

At about 5:30 p.m., an employee of the aviation division arrived in Morton with a portable “direction finder” box.

“It’s more sensitive,” Seiber said. “We’re on our way back up there to see if we can get any signal.”

Foster said his team would return by 8 o’clock tomorrow morning to resume looking from the air.

Chief Criminal Deputy Gene Seiber is based at the airport in Morton this afternoon coordinating the search for the missing Chehalis-based Cessna

John Allen Booth Jr. looks to see who is in the Chehalis courtroom audience Tuesday as proceedings get underway.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Lawyers for John Allen Booth Jr. requested an extension yesterday of the time for both sides to argue why the death penalty should or should not be sought for the man accused in the August triple slaying inside a Salkum-Onalaska area home.

Booth, 31, was brought up from the jail for the hearing wearing his usual red and white striped jail garb, belly chains and shackles on his ankles.

The only spectator in the Chehalis courtroom besides the team of sheriff’s detectives, news media and an attorney was the Onalaska native’s fiancee.

Booth has pleaded not guilty to aggravated murder and other charges in connection with the shootings on Aug. 21. A trial date has not yet been set.

Deputy Prosecutor Brad Meagher told the judge he opposes the length of time Booth’s lawyers are seeking for the filing of the notice for special proceedings. Prosecutors have 30 days from the time of arraignment to to file such notification if they decide to seek the death penalty.

Roger A. Hunko, one of a small number of lawyers in Washington state qualified to work potential death penalty cases, told Judge Richard Brosey it takes time, in his experience, to put together a meaningful “mitigation package”.

Hunko said this is his 18th aggravated murder case. The Port Orchard attorney was brought on to assist defense attorney James Dixon after the Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office upgraded the charges making it a potential capital case.

Brosey agreed to the waiver of the 30-day time period.

“The charge here is aggravated murder, with the potential of the death penalty,” Brosey said. “It doesn’t get more serious than that. I think under the circumstances, a date of the first of April is not unreasonable.”

A mitigation package is essentially a life history; a collection of information looking to show why the death penalty should not be sought, according to Hunko.

If convicted of the higher charges, the only two possible penalties for a defendant are life in prison without the possibility of release or death.

A second suspect in the slayings is also being held in the Lewis County Jail. A trial date has not yet been set for that man, 28-year-old Ryan McCarthy.

McCarthy is charged with murder, but not aggravated murder.

•••

Read some of the previous stories on the case:

• “Triple homicide case moves slowly as lawyers wait for evidence from state crime lab” from Friday Oct. 8, 2010 here

• “Death penalty is on the table” in Salkum slayings from Thursday Sept. 30, 2010 here

• “West Sr. pointed shotgun telling pair of ex-cons to leave his house, triggering triple homicide, unsealed court documents allege” from Saturday Sept. 4, 2010 here

• “Unsealed document: More details on Salkum slayings” from Monday Sept. 6, 2010 here

John Allen Booth Jr., right, listens with James Dixon, one of his two lawyers, in Lewis County Superior Court on Tuesday.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A no-bail bench warrant was issued this morning when 32-year-old Joanna McKenzie failed to show up for her sentencing.

McKenzie previously pleaded guilty to attempted burglary in connection with the night in April when an Onalaska property owner opened fire on her and her husband after he discovered them outside his house.

The Morton woman escaped uninjured but her husband Thomas McKenzie was fatally shot.

Lewis County Superior Court Judge James Lawler asked her attorney if he tried calling her. J.O. Enbody said he did, the phone number was no good, and he left a message for her on her boyfriend’s phone.

Joanna McKenzie has been free on a $10,000 unsecured bond. She recently made a so-called Alford plea, not admitting guilt in the case.

Prosecutors planned to recommend she be treated as a first-time offender – because she has no felony criminal history – a situation that normally brings 30 days in jail, Deputy Prosecutor Kjell Warner said.

Because it was only an attempted crime and “given the circumstances of this case” Warner expected to ask she be sentenced to 15 days, he said.

Enbody said she’s made every other court date.

Ronald A. Brady, the man who shot at the McKenzies, made his first appearance in the same Chehalis courtroom yesterday afternoon, to face charges of first-degree manslaughter and first-degree assault.
•••

Read “Onalaska man accused in fatal shooting of suspected burglar goes before a judge” from earlier today by scrolling down.

Find more details about the charges against Joanna McKenzie by reading the story from Thursday July 15, 2010 “When is it OK to use deadly force in Lewis County?: Not so simple to answer, sheriff says” here

Ronald A. Brady speaks with his lawyer Don Blair Tuesday afternoon in Lewis County Superior Court.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A judge ordered Ronald A. Brady yesterday to turn in all his firearms to the sheriff’s office.

The Onalaska man appeared in Lewis County Superior Court on felony charges, six months after he reportedly opened fire on two suspected burglars at his Onalaska house killing one of them.

Brady, 60, is charged with first-degree manslaughter and first-degree assault for the events that left 56-year-old Thomas McKenzie of Morton dead outside Brady’s house. McKenzie’s wife, Joanna McKenzie, 32, escaped uninjured.

Brady said very little in court yesterday, as his attorney Don Blair addressed bail for his client.

“Mr. Brady is 60 years old, he’s lived in Lewis County for 20 years,” Blair told the judge. “It’s been six months since the occurrence; if he wanted to he could have moved to Costa Rica – if he had a passport.”

Judge James Lawler ordered a $50,000 unsecured appearance bond. Among the conditions of release pending the outcome of the case was that Brady cannot possess any firearms.

According to charging documents, Brady admitted shooting at the pair outside his house he was renovating on the 2100 block of state Route 508, describing to deputies opening his garage door and finding two flashlights shined in his face.

He told sheriff’s detectives he was staying overnight at the house in case burglars from earlier in the day returned. Brady resides in a nearby rental home.

Thomas McKenzie died from a gunshot wound to his chest and leaves behind nine children and other family members.

Brady’s neighbors, Jack and Sharon Tipping, were in the Chehalis courtroom to show support for their neighbor and tenant.

Brady began renting from them almost 15 years ago after his house burned down and has resided alone as he has been rebuilding his house, the couple said.

“He’s a friendly enough guy, not outgoing, a bit of a recluse,” Jack Tipping said after the brief hearing. “He’s a good neighbor, he’s a fine upstanding person. I think it’ just an unfortunate thing that happened.”

Jack Tipping said Brady phoned him the night it happened to let him know why there were flashing lights and police cars at his house.

Brady’s home had been broken into before, as has the Tippings, the couple said.

“We’ve all been burglarized before and people don’t have a lot of sympathy for burglars, my self included,” Jack Tipping said.

Brady is scheduled to return to court for his arraignment on Oct. 21.

•••

This news story was updated at 9:55 a.m. on Wednesday Oct. 13, 2010
•••

For more of the details of what prosecutors allege happened, read the Sept. 24, 2010 story “Onalaska man charged in April’s fatal shooting of suspected burglar” here

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A judge set bail at $250,000 yesterday for a Centralia man accused of sneaking into a neighbor woman’s house while she slept.

Centralia police reported yesterday a woman sleeping with her child woke up about 1 a.m. on Thursday to find a stranger sitting on her bed holding women’s lingerie.

A registered sex offender who lives a block from her on North Pearl Street was arrested later that day at his home.

Michael A. Sanders, 42, has been felony-free for five years and lived at the same address for the past six or seven months, defense attorney Bob Schroeter told the judge yesterday afternoon in Lewis County Superior Court as bail was contemplated.

Deputy Prosecutor Colin Hayes said Sanders became a registered sex offender following a conviction for voyeurism in the year 2000 in Okanogan County.

Hayes said Sanders was convicted of felony harassment in 2003, failing to register as a sex offender four times and for fourth-degree assault, domestic violence in 2005. He also pleaded guilty last month in Chehalis Municipal Court to telephone harassment, for making phone calls of a sexual nature, Hayes told the judge.

Judge James Lawler agreed with Hayes’ concerns about “escalating behavior,” given the allegation the suspect was in the victim’s bedroom, when he decided on the bail amount.

Sanders was charged yesterday with voyeurism and residential burglary with a sexual motivation.

Charging documents in his case give the following account, which is somewhat different than Centralia police reported yesterday.

The woman was asleep with her child and when she woke up, a man sitting on her bed reached toward her head with one hand while holding her lingerie (top and panties) in the other hand.

She grabbed her child, stood up and walked toward the front door, telling the man to follow her.

They exchanged a few words and she closed the door after the man walked outside and then she called her aunt and then 911.

As she escorted him outside, the man looked confused and said, “I was bringing you a pack of cigarettes.”

The woman had asked him how he got inside and he said, “I came in because I heard you say come in.”

Police said they think he came in a window. She told police she had seen the man earlier in the evening sitting at her neighbor’s porch and had given him a couple cigarettes.

Officers initially suspected another man, her neighbor’s son, and the woman identified a picture of that man as the man who came into her house.

Later Thursday, Officer Gary Byrnes showed the woman two photo montages: one with the neighbor’s son and another with Sanders. She pointed out Sanders and said she didn’t know how she could have gotten them mixed up.

Byrnes went to Sanders home, was invited into the kitchen, and arrested him.

Sanders remains in the Lewis County Jail.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A golf ball-sized chunk of methamphetamine was found inside the Lewis County Jail and authorities say they have traced it back to … Robbie Russell.

Russell, 46, who is being held on three pending cases, was booked into the Chehalis facility in late August after the owner of Jail Sucks Bail Bond Co. decided to revoke Russell’s bonds and brought Russell to the jail.

Robert Shawn Russell

Russell denies bringing the drug into the jail, and volunteered to tell authorities how it got there, but, after he was charged yesterday with delivery of a controlled substance, Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Brad Meager said, “I’m not wild about (his) story.”

The charge is a class B felony.

When the accused appeared before a judge yesterday afternoon, his bail was set at $20,000. He is scheduled to make his plea on the charge next Thursday in Lewis County Superior Court.

Charging documents offer two versions of how the meth got inside the lock-up facility, including Russell’s statement a fellow inmate walked by, gave him a handshake and slipped a packet wrapped in paper into his hand. Then Russell gave it away, and gave more away again when it came back into his possession, according to charging documents.

Deputy Prosecutor Meagher said he doesn’t know how the dope got into the jail, but Russell implicated himself as delivering it when he spoke to the detective.

Charging documents offer the following allegations:

It began early last week when one of Russell’s cell mates was caught with the golf ball-sized chunk and then two days later when another cell mate was found in possession of 1.9 grams of methamphetamine after a drug dog was brought in.

Those two inmates both pointed to Russell as the original source of the drug.

Timothy L. Rasmussen and Timothy Baloga spoke to detective Jeff Elder.

Baloga said Russell told him he brought the drugs into the jail with him when he first arrived, hidden “up his kiester”.

Baloga said Russell gave them to Rasmussen, making a deal Rasmussen would take them back out of the jail when he got out, giving half to Russell’s wife and keeping the other half. Rasmussen corroborated some of the latter part of that story.

Rasmussen, 54, from Aberdeen, was charged Monday with possession of methamphetamine. It’s not clear if Baloga has been charged with the same.

Russell, however, describes several times he tried to get rid of the meth, including giving one portion to his cousin and leaving another portion in the bathroom by the handicapped stall and telling Rasmussen he could find it there.

Russell told the detective the original handshaker contacted him again, saying somebody needed to pick up an item in an empty potato chip bag in his cell’s garbage can. It was brought to Russell while he was in the bathroom and he initially concealed it on his body and then placed it in a cup of liquid soap, left it in the bathroom and told Rasmussen about it.

“Russell stated he advised Rasmussen not to give it to anybody inside the jail and to just hang onto it until he was released,” charging documents say. But, Russell told the detective, Rasmussen started handing the drugs out.

Russell said he did tell Rasmussen to give them to his wife, but he was going to notify authorities about Rasmussen having the drugs. And he did.

On the morning of Sept. 27, Russell told a jail lieutenant Rasmussen had a large amount of drugs.

Russell, whose last address was in Centralia, has at least 20 pending felony charges, according to the Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office.

His last felony conviction in Lewis County was in 1998. It was for possession of methamphetamine.

Russell also was implicated by the sheriff as a person of interest in August’s triple homicide in Salkum, but has not been charged with any crime in that case.
•••

Want to read more about Robbie Russell? Just type “Robbie Russell” or “Robert Russell” in the search box near the top right on the home page. He comes up in about 15 different stories in less than four months, including a mid-June arrest where police allegedly found a tennis ball-sized amount of meth in his possession.