By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – A declaration filed to bring a Centralia man into custody three days after a triple homicide suggests witnesses may not only be in danger from the weekend slaying suspect John Allen Booth Jr, but from 46-year-old Robert “Robbie” Shawn Russell.
Robert "Robbie" Shawn Russell
A no-bail warrant was issued Tuesday for Russell at the request of the Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office.
The Centralia man is named as a “person of interest” in the case where early Saturday morning four people were shot – three fatally – inside a home off Gore Road in Onalaska.
Authorities have not suggested Russell was present.
However, the declaration describes that one of the victims, David J. West Sr. was a witness in a pending case against Russell.
The two men were charged in June of last year after several teenagers camping outside Winlock were ambushed, allegedly because West Sr. was trying to get back money he believed some of them had stolen from him. West. Sr. admitted hitting a 17-year-old boy with a jack handle, and retrieving $4,000, according to charging documents in his case. Russell, allegedly brandished a handgun and fired a shot during the incident.
Russell’s case is set to go to trial the week of Oct. 18.
He faces first-degree robbery, seven counts of second-degree assault and several other charges.
Sheriff Steve Mansfield today said he won’t talk about Russell, beyond saying he’s a person of interest and deputies are looking for him.
The declaration filed in Russell’s June 2009 case however is blunt:
“Given that Mr. West is now a victim of a particularly violent murder, the state firmly believes that other witnesses may be at risk, not only from Mr. Booth, but from Mr. Russell,” Deputy Prosecutor Brad Meagher wrote in the document.
Meagher is asking that Russell be brought before a judge to have his $50,000 bail increased to half a million dollars. The deputy prosecutor was granted a bench warrant for Russell’s immediate arrest, serviceable in the continental U.S.
The stated reason includes a violation of Russell’s conditions of release on the June charges; that Russell had contact with one of the witnesses in the case after he was ordered not to.
Russell visited West Sr.’s house about two weeks prior to the shooting, the declaration says.
The declaration reveals some details of both last year’s campsite ambush and last weekend’s slayings that left West Sr., his 16-year-old son D.J. West Jr. and another man dead.
The fourth person wounded by gunfire early Saturday morning is Denise Salts, the 51-year-old live-in girlfriend of West Sr., according to the declaration.
She was shot her in the face by Booth, the document alleges.
Sheriff Mansfield has not publicly identified Salts as one of the victims, only that the survivor was airlifted by Life Flight to a hospital. On Monday the sheriff said she was in stable condition in a “secure” facility.
Mansfield today is asking anyone with any information on Russell’s whereabouts to call 911 or Lewis County Crime Stoppers at 1-800-748-6422.
He is described as a white male who is 6 feet tall and weighing 190 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes. The sheriff’s office says he is currently growing a mustache and could be bald now. He’s been known to wear wigs to disguise his identity, according to Mansfield.
Booth was captured last night in Spokane by federal marshals and a number of law enforcement officers from state and local agencies. He being held in the Spokane County Jail and will be brought to Lewis County sometime within the next week, according to Mansfield.
The 31-year-old Onalaska man is charged with the murders of West Sr., D.J. West Jr. and 50-year-old Tony E. Williams, who the sheriff’s office reported was from Mineral. William’s actually lived with his mother in Randle, according to the Lewis County Coroner’s Office who notified her of the death.
Booth is also charged with attempted murder for the shooting of Salts.
Ryan Joseph McCarthy, 28, is being held in the Lewis County Jail, and is also named as a “person of interest” in the case. He was picked up early Sunday.
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Read more about the weekend triple murder by clicking here.
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What witnesses say about the campsite ambush last summer
Charging documents in Lewis County Superior Court allege the following account:
A Lewis County sheriff’s deputy was called to Providence Centralia Hospital June 18, 2009, where a doctor said Emily Smith was there with her 17-year-old son who had been assaulted.
Smith told the deputy she, her son, her 15-year-old daughter and two other teenagers, along with Ricardo Inez Gomez and Alexander Ross were camping off King Road near Winlock.
Three men showed up in a black Suburban. A man – identified by others as David West Sr. – approached her 17-year-old son D.J.M. and demanded his money back.
When D.J.M. refused to cooperate, West began to strike him with a metal bar. When Smith stepped in to stop the attack, one of the other men pulled out a gun and pointed it at her, she said. He fired a bullet that went right beside her head. She was told to stay back.
That man was identified as Robert Shawn Russell.
Witnesses told detectives Russell then pointed the gun in the direction of the other five people at the campsite and told them to stay back.
At one point Ross approached Russell and told him to put the gun away; Russell then jabbed the barrel of the gun into Ross’s throat.
Smith told her son to give West back his money; he did and the three men left. West later told detectives he got $2,000 from D.J.M. and $2,000 from another one of the teens, 17-year-old A.G.V.
In follow up interviews, detectives were told 15-year-old J.O.S. had set up a burglary at the Silver Creek house of his step-father, West Sr.
Detectives were told Smith’s 17-year-old son D.J.M., her 15-year-old daughter T.B.M. and 17-year-old A.G.V. went to the house and stole the cash, but J.O.S.’s mother returned home and then his step-father West Sr. returned home. D.J.M. blamed it on J.O.S. and then left.
West Sr. told his step-son to get the money back. The step-son went to the campsite and then contacted his step-father.
When West Sr. was interviewed by detectives, he admitted hitting the boy with a jack handle. He said he was angry about the theft and wanted his money back. West Sr. admitted to detectives that Russell fired a round, but said he hadn’t known Russell was armed.
When Russell was contacted by detectives, he admitted he went out to King Road to help a friend get back some money stolen from him. He said things got out of control, but wouldn’t answer any more questions.
Russell was initially charged only with unlawful possession of a firearm. Later the charges were increased.
West Sr. pleaded guilty to his charges last September. His sentencing had been repeatedly postponed, but he would be going to prison, according to court records. He was a witness in the upcoming trial against Russell.
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