Lewis County Sirens.com

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The lawyer representing one of the two men accused in last month’s triple-homicide told a judge yesterday he didn’t see enough evidence to warrant his client being charged.

Olympia attorney Rick Cordes suggested after a brief hearing in Lewis County Superior Court that Ryan J. McCarthy shouldn’t be involved in the case.

“I don’t think there’s enough in the probable cause statement to charge my client,” Cordes said. “Mere presence at a crime isn’t enough.”

The lawyer’s argument had been cut short in the Chehalis courtroom moments earlier as Judge James Lawler proceeded with the reason for the hearing.

McCarthy and John Allen Booth Jr. pleaded not guilty in separate appearances late yesterday in the packed courtroom.

They are charged with first-degree murder and extortion in connection with the deaths of David J. West Jr., 16, his father David J. West Sr. 52, and Tony E. Williams, 50, of Randle. Additionally, Booth is charged with attempted murder of 51-year-old Denise Salts.

All four were found shot in the head early on Aug. 21 inside the West’s Salkum-Onalaska area home.

Both men were shackled and appeared to listen attentively as Judge Lawler asked for their pleas.

Extra jail guards and several sheriff’s deputies were on hand as the audience included both family members of the accused and of the victims.

Olympia attorney James Dixon represented Booth during the arraignment.

Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Brad Meagher told the judge he’d like to wait until Sept. 23 to select a trial date.

He asked for the delay because prosecutors are still considering increasing the charges, he said.

They need time to conduct what Meagher called a “proportionality conversation.” Before prosecutors can charge an individual with first-degree aggravated murder, the elected prosecutor must consult with other elected prosecutors around the state, according to Meagher.

With an aggravated murder charge comes a decision about whether to seek the death penalty.

The two men, described in a court document as former prison cell mates and best friends, remain in the Lewis County Jail.

Booth, 31, originally from Onalaska is held on $10 million bail. McCarthy, 28, is held on $2 million.
•••
Read story from McCarthy’s first appearance in court here. Read about Booth’s first appearance in court here.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Lewis County Prosecutor Michael Golden wants the public to know that as he is preparing to prosecute last month’s triple homicide, he hasn’t forgotten about three other homicide cases from the past year that he has yet to make charging decisions on.

And he’s pointing to the sheriff’s office as the reason for the delays.

The cases include the Onalaska teenager who died from alcohol poisoning in Sept. 2009, a 58-year-old man who died following an assault in Randle in March and a Morton man who was shot dead by an Onalaska homeowner who said he was being burglarized.

“I have received several inquires about the Nickolas Barnes case in particular and the public has a right to know that this office is not sitting on any of these cases,” Golden said in an email message about the reason for a news release he distributed last week.

In his Thursday news release, Golden said he’s still waiting for further information in each of the cases from sheriff’s detectives.

“Allocation of resources is something every agency grapples with, and each department seeks to do the best job it can,” Golden wrote in his news release. “However, there is a real danger when a number of complex and resource-intensive cases backlog in an agency.

“Age will generally not improve the strength of a case and typically the passage of time can be expected to make a case more difficult to prove.”

The elected prosecutor is currently handling the Salkum-Onalaska area shooting deaths of a father, son and a Randle man, in what is the first triple slaying in Lewis County in probably at least three decades. He’s also contemplating, with two defendants, increasing the charges to aggravated first-degree murder, a charge that hasn’t been seen in Lewis County for perhaps more than the same number of years.

Golden also is facing an election in two months and the prospect he could be replaced after December 31.

He said he’s concerned about the cases hitting all at once and stretching his resources too thin.

“Justice delayed is justice denied,” Golden wrote in his news release. “To complete a prosecution in a timely fashion, the investigation must be received in a timely fashion. This community deserves to have these cases resolved, guilt or innocence established.”

Here are the cases:

• Nickolas Barnes, 15, died Sept. 21, 2009 of alcohol poisoning after he was found passed out in the front yard at an Onalaska home where detectives concluded the adult resident had provided alcohol during a party, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.

The Onalaska High School student was found to have a blood alcohol level of .38, which is more than four times the legal limit for an adult while driving under the influence.

The resident, James W. Taylor, 28, was arrested Oct. 1 at his Lacey workplace and booked for second-degree manslaughter. He is not charged with a crime.

• Guy LaFontaine, 58, of Federal Way, died from injuries following an assault the evening of March 13 at the 11,000 block of U.S. Highway 12 in Randle, according to the sheriff’s office.

Sheriff’s deputies arrested a relative, Erik R. Massa, 42, of Randle, and booked him into jail for second-degree murder. He is not charged with a crime.

• Thomas McKenzie, 56, of Morton, died the night of April 19 when he was shot by the owner of a house under-construction on the 2100 block of state Route 508, according to the sheriff’s office.

The 59-year-old owner of the home, Ronald Brady had reported a burglary earlier in the day and stayed at the house in case burglars returned.

Lewis County Sheriff Steve Mansfield said in mid-July he concluded Brady’s actions were a reasonable use of force and would not arrest Brady, but would let the prosecutor decide.

Golden in July said he received the case materials and hoped to make a preliminary decision within a few days. But, Golden said at the time, a final determination might not be made until after he received the results of an examination of Brady’s computer.
•••

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

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The unsealed document in the Aug. 21 triple homicide case offers a lot of details about what detectives think happened inside the Lewis County house that night.

The information comes primarily from a man who described himself as a friend of the slain David West Sr. and from West’s live-in girlfriend, both of whom were at the home off Gore Road and survived.

John C. Lindberg said he went to visit the West family about 11:30 p.m. or midnight on Aug. 20 at the Salkum-Onalaska area home. As Lindberg pulled into the driveway, a small, dark-colored vehicle arrived, Lindberg told sheriff’s deputies.

Detectives concluded the second set of visitors were John Booth Jr., who is also known by the nickname “Six” and Ryan J. McCarthy, according to the document.

After a few minutes, West and Booth came back inside the house and West seemed extremely stressed, Lindberg said. Lindberg followed West down the hallway to the master bedroom and said he only had about $100 when his friend asked if he had any money on him.

“West told him that wasn’t going to work and it wasn’t enough,” Lindberg told detectives according to the allegations in the document.

West grabbed a shotgun and walked back out to the kitchen. Lindberg stayed in the bedroom. After Lindberg saw West level the shotgun, point it at Booth and tell the two men to leave, Lindberg heard gunshots and ran to hide in a bathroom for what he thought was about a half an hour, the document alleges. He then left and sped away in his white Camaro.

West Sr.’s girlfriend, Denise Salts, was interviewed later at Madigan Hospital.

Salts told detectives that after the two men arrived, she went out to feed her goats. When she heard gunshots, she ran in the backdoor and saw “Six” standing in her kitchen. He asked, “How are you doing” and shot her in the face, according to the allegations.

She fell to the floor and heard other gunshots, she said.

Neighbors reported they heard five to six gunshots that sounded as if they were small caliber and said they saw two vehicles leave the residence.

At 2:18 a.m., a deputy contacted the driver in a Camaro, Lindberg, who was crying and shaking and told the deputy there were people dying at the residence.

Two other deputies arrived at the house on the short street called Wings Way just off of Gore Road and assisted arriving medics with Salts. Three males also inside the house were dead.

Sheriff’s detective Bruce Kimsey described what he found when he entered the rambler later with crime scene specialists from the Washington State Patrol.

Sixteen-year-old David J. West Jr. was in the living room near the front door. Tony E. Williams, 50, of Randle, was across the hallway.

West Sr. was laying on the living room floor next to the kitchen with a single-barrel shotgun near his side with the hammer cocked back, Kimsey wrote in the now unsealed declaration of probable case.

Kimsey saw a projectile near the front door and a 9 mm casing near Williams.

The Lewis County Coroner’s Office has reported each died from a gunshot to the head.

WHY

Lewis County sheriff’s detectives interviewed several other people in the week following the shootings.

The declaration of probable cause caused filed with McCarthy’s charges shed light on what the the sheriff’s office believes was behind the two men’s visit to the West home that night: extortion.

The assistant manager at Booth’s workplace called detective Kimsey the Monday after the deaths. Ryan Miller said he last time he saw his co-worker about 3 p.m. the Friday before.

“Miller said Booth was talking about going to collect a $20,000 debt and the debt had something to do with bail money that was owed to him,” Kimsey wrote.

Also that week, Kimsey received a statement from an acquaintance of McCarthy’s. Angie Hoff said she got a call from McCarthy on Aug. 21 and met him in a park in Grays Harbor County.

He was with others, including someone she referred to as JB and she picked out from a photo montage as Booth.

“Hoff said McCarthy told her he ‘had a job to do’, that it was going to be ‘in and out’,” Kimsey wrote.

Early that week, Kimsey spoke with West Sr.’s step-daughter. Jessica Porter described a day in early August and her step-father got a visit from three men. She said they were “Robbie”, Booth, whose name she now knew from seeing pictures in the news and third person, a “buff” tan man with tattoos on his arms.

Porter told the detective “Robbie” went into the bedroom with her father, and when he came out, he winked at Booth and they left.

The document goes on to allege she said when she asked her dad why they were there, the only thing he said was he had to pay “Robbie” $1,000 to get him to leave. Porter told detectives her father said he was being blackmailed.

GOING AFTER THE SUSPECTS

Detectives Kimsey and Dan Riordan met with McCarthy’s wife in the couple’s home in Redmond, according to the declaration of probable cause.

Crystal McCarthy told the two she got a call from Booth around 2:30 that morning telling her to pick up her husband in Centralia. She found him sitting on a curb drinking from a bottle of water.

He wouldn’t talk about what was going on and he vomited out the window as they drove home, she said.

She told them that later on the 21st, her husband showed up at her workplace with a bag containing the clothes he had been wearing. She said she threw it into a dumpster.

Ryan J. McCarthy, 28, was picked up in Redmond about 1 a.m. on Sunday Aug. 22 by Department of Corrections officers on a DOC warrant for a violation of his community supervision. The warrant was issued the morning of Aug. 21 on information from the sheriff’s office.

McCarthy was charged on Friday with three counts of first-degree felony murder and extortion.

The particular murder charge alleges that while he was attempting to commit a felony – burglary – he or another participant caused the death of another person.

Olympia defense attorney Rick Cordes was appointed to represent him.

Booth, 31, was captured the night of Aug. 25 by federal marshals at a Spokane home. He was wanted on a a $10 million warrant for murder out of Lewis County Superior Court and also a DOC warrant issued the morning of the shootings.

The Onalaska man has been charged with three murders, extortion and attempted murder. James Dixon, of Olympia, is his court-appointed attorney.

THE ‘PERSON OF INTEREST’

Robbie Russell was named a person of interest a few days after the shooting but he has not been charged in the case.

A no-bail bench warrant was issued Aug. 24, when a deputy prosecutor told a judge he had information Russell had violated his conditions of release in another case by having contact with one of the witnesses. Deputy Prosecutor Brad Meagher said authorities had knowledge Russell had earlier in August visited West Sr.’s home.

Russell and West are co-defendants in a case set for trial next month related to them allegedly ambushing a group of teenagers camping in Winlock in the summer of 2009.

Meagher also told the judge he wanted a hearing to increase Russell’s bail from $50,000 in the case to $500,000.

The Centralia man’s last felony conviction in Lewis County was from 1998. It was for possession of methamphetamine and at that time, all his criminal history was for non-violent offenses, according to court documents.

However, during the last 14 months Russell has been charged in four different felony cases in Lewis County Superior Court.

One is the 2009 Winlock incident and another is set for trial in a little more than a week.

It involves his arrest for possession of a stolen vehicle that Lewis County deputies happened upon when they went to a Jackson Highway property in late 2009 on another matter, according to a court file.

Another is from May of this year when Centralia police, acting on a tip, went to Russell’s South Buckner Street home and found enough methamphetamine and other items such as ledgers that he was charged with possession with intent to deliver drugs, according to a court file. The trial is scheduled for the week of Sept. 20.

The fourth pending case was filed on June 23, but the charge is unclear because the court file has been repeatedly unavailable at the county clerk’s office. However, it followed Russell’s June 22 arrest in Centralia for unlawful possession of a firearm. Police Sgt. Pat Fitzgerald said a the time he also found in the car an amount of methamphetamine large enough it could be moulded into a clump the size of a tennis ball.

Russell, according to information in one of his court files, learned to be a welder in prison in the mid-1990s. After his release, he worked and lived in Snohomish County for almost a year. By late 1998, he had returned to his home, Lewis County, to take care of his father’s estate. He is married and in the late 90s had two children, one of which he wrote – in a court file – he lost because of drugs.

He has pleaded not guilty in all four pending cases.

According to his court files, in early 2010 his attorney asked to be removed from representing Russell because Russell wasn’t paying his fees. Centralia attorney Don Blair now represents Russell.

During the week after the shootings, not only was there a warrant for Russell’s arrest, but the Chehalis bondsman who put up bail in the four current cases decided he didn’t want to be involved with Russell any longer.

John Wickert, owner of Jail Sucks Bail Bond Co., had posted $10,000, $50,000, $100,000 and an unknown amount after the June charge.

“Based on what’s going on, we just decided we needed to revoke his bond,” Wickert said last week.

Wickert said Russell called him the week before last and said he was going to turn himself in and he told his attorney he was going to come in, but he didn’t.

Wickert, a former police officer in several Lewis County towns, said deputies had gotten a tip Russell had been calling around and telling everyone goodbye.

So on Thursday Aug. 26, Wickert and two of his recovery agents, along with some Lewis County law enforcement officers went looking for Russell.

At a location in south Tumwater, they found Russell’s wife and a couple of his friends loading up his belongings on a flatbed trailer, Wickert said. He wasn’t there.

Wickert learned Russell had been driving around in another motor home and he and his agents went to a Tumwater business property where they thought he might be. He was.

He saw them coming, according to Wickert. One man exited the motor home and Russell stood in the doorway when they advised him to come out, he said. Russell had shaved his head and his mustache, Wickert said.

“He stepped out and said, ‘I’m not running, I’m not’,” Wickert said.

The bondsman took Russell to the Lewis County Jail. They seized a couple of vehicles Russell had put up as collateral.

Russell remains in the Lewis County Jail.

“He’s always gone to court and said and done what he said he was gonna do, until this time,” Wickert said.

WHAT NEXT?

The Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office has said during both Booth and McCarthy’s court appearances it is considering upgrading the charges to aggravated first-degree murder, a move which means a decision would have to be made about whether to seek the death penalty.

Lewis County commissioners, who are responsible for the budgets for all county operations have already pondered the potential costs if that should happen.

“I’ve been told it could cost anywhere from $1 million to $3 million,” Commissioner Bill Schulte said last week.

The number came from a  quick “penciling out” of expenses if the prosecutor sought the death penalty for three suspects, each of whom would need to have two court-appointed and qualified defense lawyers and if each filed two appeals, Schulte said.

“If it becomes an aggravated murder, death penalty case, we go from being the being the budget Lords to being the budget servants,” he said.

Prosecutor Michael Golden is an elected official and the decision will be his alone how to prosecute the case, Schulte said.

“It’s more than the prosecutor has in his budget,” Schulte said, noting it would likely be spread out over more than one year and there is also a special state fund they can apply to for such cases.

The prosecutor’s annual spending for this year is just over $2.85 million, although more than $1 million of that comes from outside grants and is required to be dedicated to specific activities.

The bulk of money spent however would be on the defense side and be paid from the county budget set aside for indigent defendants, according to Golden.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Authorities say the fatal shooting of three people inside a Lewis County home was sparked when the 52-year-old resident picked up a shotgun trying to get two men to leave, a pair of ex-convicts detectives suggest were attempting to extort thousands of dollars.

A visitor to David J. West Sr.’s Salkum-Onalaska area house told detectives he saw West point the gun at John Allen Booth Jr. in the kitchen and heard West say something to the effect of “You two m****** f****** get up and get out of here.”

John C. Lindberg said he then heard gunshots though he could not tell who was firing, and he ran into a bathroom and hid.

By 2:30 a.m. that morning two weeks ago, West, his 16-year-old son and a 50-year-old friend from Randle were laying dead inside the rental house off Gore Road. West’s girlfriend Denise Salts lay bleeding on the kitchen floor with a gunshot wound to her face.

The details of what Lewis County Sheriff’s Office detectives believe happened on Aug. 21 are described in a declaration of probable cause filed yesterday in Lewis County Superior Court when a second person was charged in the triple homicide.

Ryan Joseph McCarthy, a 28-year-old Redmond man went before a judge late yesterday in a Chehalis courtroom. He was charged with three counts of first-degree felony murder and extortion.

Judge James Lawler set bail at $2 million and appointed a public defender to represent McCarthy.

The Redmond man is described as a recent cell mate and best friend of the 31-year-old Onalaska man Booth who was charged with similar counts last week, as well as attempted murder.

Charging documents filed yesterday suggest the two men went to West’s house to collect $20,000 Booth allegedly told someone was related to bail money owed to him. West had also told his step-daughter he was being blackmailed, according to charging documents.

A primary document in the case – outlining what detectives uncovered about the case – was unsealed yesterday. The Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office had requested it remain unavailable as sheriff’s deputies continued their investigation and in part because prosecutors were contemplating upgrading the charges to aggravated first-degree murder.

They have not done that, but elected Lewis County Prosecutor Michael Golden told Judge Lawler in court yesterday his office expects to make a decision in the next couple of weeks.

Golden said after the hearing yesterday he’s charged both men in the same three deaths without particularly describing who fired a weapon.

“Frankly it doesn’t matter which one held the gun or if they both held the gun,” Golden said.

McCarthy was just released from prison the end of July, where he had spent four years for a drug conviction out of Grays Harbor County Superior Court. He had been convicted for possession of methamphetamine with intent to deliver, according to the Washington State Department of Corrections.

He was also incarcerated for a little over a year ending in late 2005 for residential burglary in Grays Harbor County. McCarthy’s temporary defense attorney yesterday noted to the judge his client had seven previous felony convictions.

The 28-year-old is known by his friend Robert “Robbie” Shawn Russell, 46, of Centralia as “White Folk”, according to charging documents. His forearms are tattooed with those words, according to charging documents and a photograph in the court file.

Russell, 46, of Centralia, is locked up in the Lewis County Jail as a person of interest in the homicides. He has not been charged.

McCarthy and Booth are scheduled for arraignment next Thursday.
•••
More on this later.

•••
Read the last news story on the case here.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Lewis County Prosecutor Michael Golden announced late this afternoon he intends to charge Ryan Joseph McCarthy with three counts of first-degree murder for his role in the fatal shootings on Aug. 21 in the Salkum-Onalaska area.

The 28-year-old Redmond resident was picked up as a person of interest in the case within 24 hours of the deaths, based on information the from the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.

Authorities have not said publicly what they believe McCarthy’s part to be.

Golden said in a news release just before 5 p.m. he will charge McCarthy in the deaths of David J. West III, 16, his father David J. West Sr. 52, and Tony E. Williams, 50, of Randle. He also said he will charge McCarthy with extortion.

Golden couldn’t be reached for further comment.

John Allen Booth Jr., 31, of Onalaska, is already charged with first-degree murder of those victims, extortion and attempted first-degree murder in the instance of the senior West’s live-in girlfriend, Denise Salts, 51, who survived a gunshot wound to her face, and other lesser charges.

The details of what authorities suspect happened at the house off Gore Road remain scarce, as a primary document in Booth’s court file was ordered sealed by a judge until next week.

Lewis County Sheriff Steve Mansfield has said he believes the shootings were connected to a drug-related debt collection and described what deputies found as “a very sad and brutal scene.”

Several hours after the 2 a.m. call, as detectives were processing the scene Mansfield told news reporters they did find weapons in the house, but he didn’t know if a murder weapon was found.

The sheriff wouldn’t say if it appeared there was an exchange of gunfire.

Mansfield also said they knew there were other people at the house who left before deputies arrived at 2:30 a.m. It was a neighbor who had called 911 about shots fired, he said.

Golden also announced this afternoon additional suspects may be named and additional charges may be filed based on the results of the ongoing criminal investigation.

Robert Shawn Russell, 46, of Centralia, was named a person of interest in the case last week and picked up in Tumwater by a bail bondsman who decided to revoke bonds he had posted on Russell’s four pending felony cases in Lewis County Superior Court.

On Monday, prosecutors filed notice they will seek exceptionally high sentences in each of Russell’s four cases.

The sheriff’s office is still gathering facts and some other evidence has been sent out for forensic testing, according to Golden.

McCarthy was just released from prison on July 29. Like Booth, he was under the supervision of a community corrections officer with the state Department of Corrections.

His most recent of six felony chargings in Washington was in Grays Harbor County Superior Court in May 2006, according to information available online from Washington State Courts.

Golden’s news release also addressed the decision his office is contemplating to increase the charges to aggravated murder, a move which would give him the option of seeking the death penalty.

The decision won’t be made until additional evidence is gathered and considered, Golden noted.

He included a lengthy quote: “With multiple victims, multiple suspects and a complex crime scene, this case will consume significant resources,” the elected prosecutor wrote. “However, over the past three years I have built a solid team of trial attorneys, and we are quite capable of exacting justice in this case.

“Whether that will include a request for the death penalty will depend on all the available evidence, including that which is still being gathered by the sheriff’s office.”

While Booth has been charged, his opportunity to make his plea won’t come until next week.

Golden did not note when he expected he would file charges against McCarthy.

All three men remain in the Lewis County Jail.

•••
This news story was updated at 7:15 p.m.

•••

Read the last story on the case here.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CENTRALIA – Police responding about 7:30 tonight to a report of a train derailment in Centralia found what appeared to be about five cars damaged north of the Sixth Street Viaduct.

There were no reports of injuries and officers quickly concluded the freight train cars were not carrying hazardous materials.

“If there’s anything in it, it’s grain and the other one looks empty,” Centralia Police officer Buddy Croy said of the two cars most obviously awry.

One tanker-type car was partially tipped over and and the side of another was torn off, Croy said.

It happened at a switching yard near Kearney Street and Prospect Avenue, adjacent to the main north-south route upon which Amtrak and freight trains travel between Seattle and Portland.

He said he didn’t know what happened, but expected BNSF would be investigating. It appeared one train was moving and the other cars were parked, he said.

Workers at the rail yard were on the scene and said they sometimes get kids coming through and switching lines, Croy said.

Corrie Aker was inside her home next to the tracks watching a movie with her family when she heard the noise. They ran outside to see two cars wobbling over, she said.

“I kept telling the girls, ‘stay back, stay back’, because you don’t know what’s in there,” Aker said.

BNSF spokesperson Gus Melonas said a freight train was pulling onto the mainline when the slow-speed collision occurred. It happened during a routine switching movement, he said.

Melonas expected that line would be reopened by about 10:30 p.m. Rail operations were not significantly affected because traffic was able to continue moving on the second mainline, he said.

BNSF is bringing in equipment from Pasco to either re-rail or remove the damaged cars. Tracks there were damaged, but switching operations are continuing, he said about 10 p.m.

Neighbors Sheila Shiminesky and Jean Heier walked over from B Street to see what caused the rumbling they said just went on and on.

Both women have lived near the tracks for more than four decades and worry some about the potential for spills from the various cargo hauled through the area.

“I’ve always wondered, what if something like this happened and it had poisonous gas or something,” Shiminesky said.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Prosecutors increased the charges when triple-homicide suspect John Allen Booth Jr. appeared in court yesterday and said they may do so again, possibly charging the Onalaska man with aggravated first-degree murders, making it a potential death penalty case.

“I think we’ve indicated to the court we’re seriously considering that,” Deputy Prosecutor Brad Meagher told the judge Monday afternoon in the Chehalis courtroom.

Booth was shackled and wearing red and white striped jail garb when he faced Lewis County Superior Court Judge Richard Brosey.

Booth, 31, is accused in last weekend’s slayings inside a Onalaska-Salkum area home that left three people dead and one seriously wounded. Sheriff Steve Mansfield has said he believes the shootings were related to a drug debt collection.

The details of what detectives believed happened before they were called around 2 o’clock in the morning on Aug. 21, remain sketchy, as a primary document in Booth’s court file was ordered sealed by a judge.

The victims include David J. West Jr., 16, his father David J. West Sr. 52, and Tony E. Williams, 50, of Randle. Each died of a gunshot in the head, according to the coroner’s office. The senior West’s live-in girlfriend, Denise Salts, 51, survived a gunshot wound to her face.

Booth was charged last week while he was still at large with first-degree murders in the deaths of the teenager and Williams who was visiting the home off Gore Road. The charge related to West Sr., a friend or acquaintance of Booth’s, was second-degree murder.

However, the amended information filed Monday added one count of first-degree murder in the death of West. Sr. Deputy Prosecutor Meagher also added the option of so-called felony murder for each of the three victims.

The new allegation means that while Booth was committing, or attempting to commit burglary, he caused the death of another person. All have a maximum penalty of life in prison. Booth is also charged with extortion and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

The small courtroom was nearly filled and included several members of the sheriff’s office, the news media and family and friends of both the accused and the victims. The defendant appeared to listen attentively to the proceedings. He didn’t speak.

A primary reason for the brief hearing was to address Booth’s bail.

Temporary defense attorney Bob Schroeter asked the judge to reduce bail from $10 million to $100,000. Judge Brosey said no.

Schroeter, who said he met with Booth at the jail earlier in the day, indicated his client had no income or assets and would qualify for a court-appointed attorney to represent him.

Brosey said he wouldn’t appoint any of the usual Lewis County defense attorneys, indicating that was because of conflicts they or their firms had from representing various subjects in the case.

If the charges are increased to aggravated murder, Brosey said, he would appoint two lawyers from the Washington State Supreme Court list of those qualified to handle potential death penalty cases.

The judge also addressed his order sealing the affidavit of probable cause. The document, filed with the charges last Monday, presumably outlines the details of what detectives believe occurred at the rental house where the shootings took place.

Meagher requested it remain unavailable to all but the attorneys involved for another week or two, in part to protect persons named and unnamed in it who might be questioned.

“The investigation is ongoing and there is the potential for the charges to be elevated to aggravated murder,” Meagher said.

Judge Brosey said the document would remain sealed until noon on Sept. 7.

Booth’s opportunity to make his plea won’t come until a week from Thursday.

Outside the courtroom, a group of seven people who said they were family and friends there in support of Booth, declined to comment.

Victim Tony Williams’ mother and brother were accompanied by eight other of his family members, including his 12-year-old son. The 50-year-old carpenter and painter lived in Randle with his mother.

Juanita Williams suggested her grown son was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“I just know Tony didn’t deserve this,” she said. “He just went out there to help Dave move.”

What does Booth’s criminal past include?

CROWBAR TO THE HEAD

Booth was just released in December from his second prison term for assault.

He had served about five and a half years after a spring 2004 incident in which allegedly he hit a man in the head with a crowbar at a Saturday night dance in downtown Centralia, and then struck a bouncer in the forearm when he was chased down an alley behind the Aerie building where the event was held.

The Onalaska man pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree assault and was sentenced to eight years by then-Lewis County Superior Court Judge David Draper, according to court documents. Booth, through his attorney, appealed the sentence, but lost.

He got out of prison early, because he earned nearly all of his so-called “good conduct time” while he was incarcerated, according to a state Department of Corrections spokesperson.

“Typically, you can earn up to one-third of your time,” spokesperson Chad Lewis said.

Offenders can lose good time if they do such things as get violent infractions and can gain good time if they engage in positive activities such as earning their GED, Lewis said.

Part of the reasoning behind giving good time is to reduce prison violence, according to Lewis.

“One reason is if you’re an offender in there with nothing to lose, they just watch the clock, watch the calendar,” Lewis said. “There’s no incentive to do any work while there.”

Booth only lost 15 days of good time for a January 2009 infraction of “strong arming”, according to Lewis.

His sentence, however, also included at least 18 months of supervision by a DOC community corrections officer following his Dec. 21 release. As a high risk violent offender, he and the officer were required to have a minimum of four contacts each month.

DOC is currently investigating a gap of several months in which the two perhaps didn’t even meet. The Tacoma-based community corrections officer responsible for Booth has been put on administrative leave.

HAMMER TO THE FACE

Booth’s first prison stay for assault lasted almost four years and ended in June 2003. Court documents give the following accounts of the crime and his previous run ins with the law.

He was arrested after a July 1999 incident in which he was accused of walking into a Toledo-area home with another individual and hitting a man in the side of the head with a claw hammer after allegedly saying they had come to “take all their dope.”

He pleaded guilty as charged – to one count of second-degree assault and one count of burglary – and the judge accepted the prosecutor’s recommended sentence of 75 months.

Booth appealed and won. His sentence was reduced to 46 months, because authorities had miscalculated his “offender score”, a measure of previous criminal convictions which influence the length of time a person can be locked up for a given charge.

In both those cases, and in a another one which got Booth a little over three months in county jail, Booth made a so-called Alford plea, meaning he didn’t admit guilt, but agreed if the prosecutor’s evidence were assumed to be fact, he would be found guilty.

POINTING GUN TOWARD MAN

That third felony case occurred in the summer of 2003, when he’d been out of prison less than a year.

He pleaded guilty to third-degree assault and witness tampering. He allegedly went to a Salkum residence and pulled a pistol from beneath the hood of his car and threatened a man, saying “this was for his father.” Booth had been initially charged with second-degree assault in that case. He got 107 days.

STOLEN GUNS

Booth’s first adult felony conviction got him a prison stay in 1998 of some seven months. He was charged when he was 18 years old with four counts of possessing stolen firearms. The guns had been stolen from an Onalaska home almost across the street from Booth’s Middle Fork Road residence.

Court documents in that case state that Booth’s criminal history already included such convictions as misdemeanor assaults, burglary, theft, attempt to elude, obstructing police, harassment and trespass.

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Read “John Booth Jr.: State prison doesn’t know if it was closely enough monitoring ex-convict charged in triple homicide” here

Read “‘Robbie’ Russell” Person of interest in slayings is a danger to witnesses, authorities say” here

Read “Breaking news: Triple murder suspect captured in Spokane” here.
Read “Two were murdered to eliminate witnesses” here.
Read “Slain teenager described as tight with father” here.
Read “Manhunt spreads to Spokane and beyond after three fatally shot in Onalaska” here