Lewis County Sirens.com

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

ONALASKA – Nickolas Barnes’ mother has run out of tears.

Just as the anniversary of the death of her 15-year-old son approached, Rachael Smith and other family members learned prosecutors were charging a man with manslaughter, alleging he caused the Onalaska teenager’s death by providing alcohol at an underage drinking party.

Nickolas Barnes

Nickolas died of alcohol poisoning Sept. 21 of last year, two days after he was found passed out in the front yard of an Onalaska home and was driven to Providence Centralia Hospital.

On Tuesday night, exactly one year later, the teenager’s family held a gathering in his memory.

“Nick would be saying, life goes on,” his grandmother Susan Patterson said. “Thank you for being Nick’s friends. From the bottom of our hearts, we want to thank each and every one of you for your help to us through this year.”

About 40 individuals shared coffee, cookies and stories at the new Onalaska Community Youth Center.

Nineteen-year-old Eric Messal spoke of goofy teenage boy capers that made Patterson “shush” him. Patterson talked of the tenderness her grandson showed when their home flooded and he made sure his great grandmother got put in a rescue boat first.

Nickolas was a sophomore who really liked football, Messal said.

He grew up in West Seattle and moved to the small rural community in the eighth grade.

His “substitute” grandparents traveled to Onalaska to attend the gathering. Betty Anderson said she thought it was a wise thing for Nickolas to get away from the influences of the city as he grew older.

The evening was meant to remember his life, not his death, his grandmother said. But outside and away from the crowd, one of Nickolas’s former girlfriends talked about losing a friend.

Tiffani Weiher, 16, said partying is not for her any more.

“Ever since Nick passed, I’ve really re-thought everything,” she said. “I’ve made sure I got closer to God, and my friends.”

Tiffani wasn’t there, but she knows the drinking game being played that night at the house, she said.

Shot for shot, she said. “The first person to pass out has to be the party favor,” Tiffani said.

Nickolas’s friends removed his clothes and wrote on his body with a black marker, according to court documents. They later tried to put his pants back on him and covered him with a blanket.

“Personally, I just think it’s the stupidest game ever,” Tiffani said.

Nickolas’s blood alcohol level was .32, according to charging documents, which is four times the legal limit for an adult while driving under the influence.

Charging documents in Lewis County Superior Court describe a gathering last year in which nine teenagers drank beer which belonged to the only adult who was present, 28-year-old James W. Taylor who lived at the Onalaska house with two teenage children and some other adults.

Some of the teens reportedly gave Taylor money to purchase more beer around 10:30 p.m. that night.

Charging documents in Taylor’s case include the following:

At about midnight, Nickolas and a 16-year-old boy played “shot for shot” with vodka. The two consumed more than 11 shots and then Nickolas drank from the bottle until two boys took it away from him.

A few minutes later, Nickolas passed out.

Prosecutors allege Taylor told the teenagers to “let him sleep it off.”

The vodka was brought by Nickolas for a previous party there, the documents say.

At about 1:30 a.m. or 2 a.m. two adults arrived and found him in the front yard, not breathing, his lips blue.

Taylor and another man took Nickolas to Providence Centralia Hospital, where twice he was revived and flown to Mary Bridge Children’s’ Hospital.

He was taken off life support the evening of the 21st, according to his grandmother.

Taylor, now 29, was charged last Friday with second-degree manslaughter, meaning prosecutors believe he negligently caused the teenager’s death.

He was also charged with failing to summon assistance for Nickolas and with seven counts of furnishing liquor to minors. If convicted as charged, he could face as much as 27 months in prison, according to the Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office.

Taylor is scheduled appear before a judge on Oct. 5.

•••

Read previous stories:
• “News brief: Criminal charges filed in Onalaska teen’s alcohol poisoning death” from Friday Sept. 17, 2010 here.
• “Two more homicide cases now await charging decisions by Lewis County prosecutor” from Saturday Sept. 11, 2010 here.
• “Three Lewis County homicides still unresolved as triple-slaying prosecution begins” from Wednesday Sept. 8, 2010 here.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The Tenino resident initially accused of being the gun man in a Chehalis drive-by shooting was in court again last week after charges against him were dismissed but prosecutors made new allegations.

Ruben Alberto Palomares

Authorities now say Ruben Alberto Palomares, 25, threatened a witness and possessed false identification.

Palomares turned himself in just days after police were called to a residential neighborhood when somebody in a red Chevrolet Blazer stuck a pistol out the window and fired a round that struck an unoccupied vehicle early on Aug. 7. Police believe it was gang related.

His 24-year-old wife Christina Palomares remains in custody, having been arrested and charged for being the driver. A Chehalis man and a Centralia man detectives believe were also in the Blazer remain at large.

Witnesses in the case implicated two different individuals as the shooter, according to charging documents. The alleged intended target, Rolando Carrillo Cruz, told a police detective he was certain it was Andrew Morales-Loberg somebody he’s known since they were children; yet Christina Palomares pointed to her husband, according to the documents.

Defense attorney Don Blair filed a motion to dismiss the charges against his client, Ruben Palomares, arguing the wife’s statements against her husband should be inadmissible because her information came from privileged marital communications. Lewis County Superior Court Judge Richard Brosey agreed on Tuesday, and agreed the remaining facts were insufficient to sustain a charge against Ruben Palomares.

Ruben Palomares on Thursday pleaded not guilty to the new charges of tampering with a witness and forgery. His bail, previously set at $1 million, has been reduced to $25,000.

Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Steve Scott alleges in charging documents that Ruben Palomares called his sister-in-law and ended up speaking to his mother-in-law in the days after the shooting incident and told her, “If they or anyone else snitch on me, I will take care of it.” He also allegedly said to tell his wife she “needs to keep her mouth shut.”

The couple, according to attorneys, have three children and have been married almost four years.

Christina Palomares has told more than one story to police detectives, including that she was at home in Tenino at the time the incident happened in Chehalis.

The other new charge against Ruben Palomares comes from a Washington State identification card his sister-in-law handed over to detectives.

According to charging documents, the card shows his photo but is in the name of Martin Ledesma, with a birthdate of January 23, 1969 and the Palomares’ home address.

He worked almost five years – until March – at a fabricating company in the Chehalis Industrial Park, under the name of Ledesma, according to charging documents.

Ruben Palomares is a former Rochester High School student who has lived in the area since he was six years old, according to an attorney who represented him at his first court appearance.

A copy of his marriage certificate in his court file lists his birthplace as Mexico.

Andrew Morales-Loberg

Juan Valentino Vasquez

Chehalis police continue to seek two men wanted as suspects in the drive-by shooting. They are Morales-Loberg, 19, of Chehalis; and Juan Valentino Vasquez, also known by his street name “Grover”, 24, of Centralia.
•••

To read a previous story with more details of what prosecutors allege occurred in the drive-by shooting, click here.

And, “Mother of three charged in Chehalis drive-by shooting, husband turns self in” click here.

Fire department officials decide to leave a Hummer supporting a house it hit this morning in Centralia until something else can be found to hold up the wall.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CENTRALIA – A big black Hummer missed a turn at the bottom of Seminary Hill in Centralia early this morning and wound up lodged into the side of a two-story house.

Nobody was seriously hurt but a resident inside was “jolted” and sustained minor injuries, according to police.

The vehicle knocked the house off some of its piers so the residence on the 500 block of East Maple Street was evacuated, Centralia police Sgt. Kurt Reichert said this morning.

Yellow caution tape surrounded the scene still this afternoon and the Hummer will remain there until the wall can be supported with something other than the vehicle.

“We didn’t feel like we could safely remove it,” Riverside Fire Authority Assistant Chief Rick Mack said.

Neighbor Nick Anderson said the wreck woke him up just after 5 a.m.

“By the time I got my shoes on, they were already out of the car,” Anderson said.

It’s hardly a new experience for Anderson who said over the years other drivers coming down the hill too fast have hit his porch, two of his trees and once, destroyed his dog’s house.

“Last Thanksgiving I had my truck parked there and it got totaled, the other day it was two garbage cans,” Anderson said. “It happens quite often actually.”

Reichert said the driver, Ruben Arceo-Garcia, 41, of Centralia, was given a citation for “speed too fast for conditions”.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The suspect in the death of a man found handcuffed and shot to death on an Olympia street last November is expected in a Lewis County courtroom tomorrow, to face charges related to pounds of methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin police say he had in his possession when he was captured in the Chehalis Industrial Park.

Robert John Maddaus Jr. 40, is charged with first-degree murder in Thurston County in the case of Shaun A. Peterson, 40, who was found dead Nov. 16 on Capitol Way Southeast. Maddaus was apprehended almost two weeks later by Lewis County sheriff’s deputies who followed the red Corvette in which he was a passenger.

When the car was searched, detectives found a nine millimeter pistol, more than $35,000 cash and a green backpack which contained two and a half pounds of methamphetamine, nearly a half pound of cocaine and almost one-third pound of heroin, according to charging documents in Thurston County Superior Court.

The driver of the car was Robert S. Russell, the Centralia man being held in the Lewis County Jail on four pending criminal cases of his own and as a person of interest in last month’s triple homicide in the Onalaska-Salkum area, according to court papers.

Robert Shawn Russell

Russell was working as a confidential informant, helping Olympia police find Maddaus that night, according to a sheriff’s office incident report.

Detective Chris Johnstone, the Olympia police officer assigned to the Maddaus homicide, wouldn’t comment on Russell’s role or why he would agree to assist police. The two men knew each other, according to Johnstone.

“Their relationship appeared to be centered around the distribution of methamphetamine,” Johnstone said last week.

Maddaus is a Rochester resident, according to court documents. Russell had addresses in both Chehalis and Tumwater when the pair were picked up.

Maddaus is charged in Lewis County Superior Court with possession of each of the three drugs with intent to deliver, as well as unlawful possession of a firearm. He is expected to appear before a judge in Chehalis tomorrow afternoon. Russell has not been charged in connection with the late-November pursuit.

Court documents and police reports offer a detailed account of the pursuit and eventual crash of the Corvette the night of Nov. 27.

A warrant had been issued for Maddaus after the homicide and Olympia police were actively looking for him, according to an affidavit for a search warrant on the car.

Olympia detectives learned he was going to be at a residence on the 2100 block of Jackson Highway and would be departing in a red Corvette. Russell would contact detectives when he was in contact with Maddaus, according to a Lewis County Sheriff’s Office incident report.

At about 5:30 p.m., plans began to form for the Lewis County Sheriff’s office SWAT team to assist.

It wasn’t until 11:30 p.m., moments after the SWAT team had disassembled, when Deputy Sgt. Rob Snaza and detective Dan Riordan got word the car was leaving and got behind it as it turned off Jackson Highway onto Rush Road, according to incident reports.

The driver pulled over near Maurin Road, but then looked back and sped away fishtailing, Snaza wrote in his report. Snaza used his patrol car to do a so-called PIT maneuver, intentionally spinning out the fleeing car.

The Corvette slid sideways into the ongoing lane, hit a culvert and went airborne, flipping around, Riordan wrote.

Olympia police took over. Maddaus was taken into custody. Neither the sheriff’s office incident report nor the documents charging Maddaus with the drugs make mention of what was done with Russell.

Olympia detective Johnstone’s affidavit however explains why Russell seemingly changed his mind about helping police get Maddaus.

Russell attempted to pull over but Maddaus placed something hard that felt like a knife under his right arm and told him to move. Johnstone wrote.

The drug charges against Maddaus were originally filed in Thurston County with the murder, attempted kidnapping and four counts of witness tampering. In mid-August, an order was signed changing the venue for the drug charges to Lewis County. His murder trial is currently scheduled for the first week in October.

Russell was facing a trial next week on a charge of possessing methamphetamine with intent to deliver from a Centralia case this past spring, but this morning attorneys agreed to postpone that trial. He is also  scheduled for a trial the end of this month for possession of stolen property.

When Lewis county deputies went to his residence on Jackson Highway on another matter last December 19 – three weeks after the Corvette chase incident – they found a black Dodge Caliber that was reported stolen.

The vehicle belongs to Maddaus.

•••
The (Centralia) Chronicle posted aerial video from the Washington State Patrol’s “Smokey four” of the pursuit and the stop. Watch it here

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The man who ran a stolen pickup truck into a patrol car prompting a police officer to open fire in a Centralia neighborhood in late July was sentenced to almost five years in prison today after he pleaded guilty in Lewis County Superior Court.

Joshua A. Fitchhorn, 32, of SeaTac, wanted to plead guilty pretty much from day one, his lawyer told Judge Nelson Hunt.

Centralia Police Officer Michael Lowrey is shown as he fires at a pickup truck driving away after it rammed Lowrey's patrol car.

Defense attorney David Arcuri and Deputy Prosecutor Kjell Werner worked out a deal in which one charge was lowered but both agreed to recommend the judge hand out the maximum sentence under the law. Hunt concurred.

Fitchhorn was arrested July 29 after he stole a pickup truck and was chased through town by police officers as well as a pair of men who witnessed the theft.

Charging documents and a residential surveillance camera show Officer Michael Lowrey stopped his patrol car on Euclid Street and the lifted four-wheel drive truck headed toward him and struck the front of the patrol car. The videotape shows the truck back up and then move forward again as though to make a U-turn and strike the patrol car a second time. It shows Lowrey then exit his vehicle and take aim with his handgun as the pickup drove away.

Warner said he understood Lowrey fired three shots and two narrowly missed Fitchhorn.

“The guy’s lucky to be alive,” Warner said after the court hearing. “It was a stupid thing to do, but … he’s lucky.”

Lowrey, an 11-year veteran of the department, was treated for a minor injury to his head after the ramming.

He was put on what Centralia Police Chief Bob Berg described as modified duty pending the outcome of the administrative review. The results of the review have not been released.

Fitchhorn pleaded guilty today to attempting to elude, hit and run, vehicle theft and third-degree assault. The last charge was lowered from second-degree assault in the plea agreement.

The unemployed man who had recently been released from a Chehalis drug and alcohol treatment center had two prior convictions for felony eluding and three times been convicted for second-degree taking a motor vehicle without permission, according to the prosecutor’s office.

Warner said it was a good deal for Fitchhorn as none of the final charges would be a strike offense and suggested it was beneficial to the prosecutor’s office as well.

“Honestly, there were some questions of the sufficiency of the evidence,” Warner said.

It looked in the video tape as though the brakes on the truck locked up and he was trying not to hit the patrol car, Warner said.

Fitchhorn when he was questioned by the judge about what he did began to say he didn’t see the patrol car and the judge cut him off.

He was sentenced to 57 months on two of the counts, 43 months on one and 18 months on another. They will be served concurrently.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Michael Golden got his wish. Sort of. Maybe.

Two of the three homicide cases the elected Lewis County prosecutor was complaining about last week as being “backlogged” at the sheriff’s office should now be in his hands so he can make charging decisions.

Sheriff’s office detective Sgt. Dusty Breen said yesterday the last piece of information in the investigation of April’s fatal shooting in Onalaska of a suspected burglar came back the day before and he notified the lead deputy prosecutor in the case.

“Our office is sending it on to the prosecutor’s office by normal channels,” Breen said yesterday.

Golden, who is facing a contested election in November, took the sheriff’s office to task last week by publicly announcing he was not the reason no decisions have been made about three cases from the last year that remained in the investigation phase. He pointed out the danger that aging cases are more difficult to prove.

Sheriff Steve Mansfield asked Breen and his Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown to respond to an inquiry following the finger pointing.

Brown is a primary spokesperson for the sheriff’s office and a former detective. She called Golden’s contentions inappropriate, misguided and absurd.

“The detective division prides itself on keeping in close contact with the lead deputy prosecutors on cases,” Brown said. “We keep them apprised. We want justice to be served.”

Detectives turned over their findings in July on the April 19 death of Thomas McKenzie, 56, of Morton. Fifty-nine-year-old Ronald Brady had fired upon two suspected burglars at his Onalaska home, according to the sheriff’s office.

The prosecutor’s office requested an examination of Brady’s computer, basically “looking toward the shooter’s mental state,” according to Breen.

Knowing the turn around time for the state crime lab to conduct such computer analysis averages about eight months, the sheriff’s office engaged a Thurston County detective certified to do the work, Breen said

The results came back Thursday. Breen didn’t reveal what they found.

Sheriff Mansfield has already made it clear he feels the homeowner’s actions were reasonable, but whether charges will be filed is Golden’s’ decision.

Breen, who has been the supervisor of the detective division for almost two years, said it’s not out of the ordinary for some cases to take this long.

“It’s hard for people I think sometimes, that are outside this business (to understand),” Breen said. The detectives’ jobs are not finished just because they arrest someone, he said.

The oldest homicide arrest still in the pipeline is related to 15-year-old Nickolas Barnes who died Sept. 21, 2009 of alcohol poisoning after he was found passed out in the front yard at an Onalaska home. Detectives concluded the adult resident had provided alcohol during a party and on Oct. 1 arrested James W. Taylor, 28, for second-degree manslaughter.

The prosecutor’s office requested follow up investigation after the arrest and detectives did that, Breen said. Detectives got a request for additional follow up which more or less coincided with the lead detective on the case going on leave.

The family knew the detective could be out a month or so but wanted him to be the one to handle it, so they honored that, Breen said. But when he returned, they were hit with the case of Austin King in Morton who vanished and then was found dead, and then last month’s triple homicide, Breen said.

The sergeant said the prosecutor’s requests for more information have all been addressed and late last week he told the records division to send the three-ring binder to the deputy prosecutor on the case.

The third case is still pending, Breen said.

Sheriff’s deputies arrested Erik R. Massa, 42, of Randle, for second-degree murder after 58-year-old Guy LaFontaine died from injuries following an assault in March in Randle.

It wasn’t until the middle of last month detectives got the results from the state crime lab on analysis of blood from the scene, Breen said. About the same time, the sheriff’s office got some information from a family member which could be a key element in the case, he said. They are awaiting some documentation of that which the sergeant didn’t elaborate upon.

Breen has four detectives in his division. A fifth position has been left vacant since a retirement early last year because of budget constraints, he said.

Golden said last week he’s concerned about the cases hitting his office all at once and stretching his resources too thin.

He is currently handling the prosecution of two men for last month’s triple-homicide in the Onalaska-Salkum area and contemplating upgrading the charges to make it a capital murder case.
•••

Read Lewis County Sirens July 14, 2010 news story about the Onalaska shooting case here.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

The Washington State Supreme Court yesterday issued a ruling saying a Lewis County judge’s order to make a man undergo a polygraph examination about his sexual history is invalid.

Jake Hawkins is the subject of an attempt by the state to label him a sexually violent predator so the state can commit him to civil detention following his sentence for a sex crime.

Hawkins was convicted in 1993 of attempted rape.

In 2006, after the trial court found probable cause to believe Hawkins was a sexually violent predator but before a jury had been asked to determine the issue beyond a reasonable doubt, he was taken into custody for an evaluation, according to the ruling.

Then-Lewis County Superior Court Judge H. John Hall ordered the polygraph. Hawkins refused and appealed the order.

Hawkins remains locked up at the McNeil Island Special Commitment Center where he has been waiting the involuntary commitment trial, according to Jodi Backlund, one of the two Olympia attorneys who took the question to the Supreme Court.

The Community Protection Act of 1990 allows the state to civilly commit some sex offenders after they have completed their criminal sentences. They remain there until a court determines they are ready to be released to a less restrictive living arrangement.

In yesterday’s decision, the justices noted the difficulties of polygraph examinations, which courts have consistently recognized as unreliable and are inadmissible unless stipulated to by all parties, they wrote.

In addition, they are invasive of one’s private affairs, and this inquiry is into one of the most private affairs of a person, the court noted.

Six of the nine Supreme Court justices agreed on yesterday’s ruling.

The majority author, Justice Susan Owens, wrote the law does not prohibit the use by an evaluator of voluntary or previously existing polygraph examinations, and even without one, an expert is still capable of reaching an opinion as to whether an individual is a sexually violent predator.

Backlund said yesterday’s decision doesn’t mean Hawkins gets to go free.

The decision vacates the order compelling Hawkins to under the polygraph and the commitment trial in Lewis County Superior Court can go forward.
•••

Read the Washington State Supreme Court opinion here. Read the dissenting opinion here.