Lewis County Sirens.com

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By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS –  For those who would like to help honor the memory of the Tower children who lost their lives last month in a Centralia house fire, a family fun day is set for Sunday.

The proceeds will benefit scholarships for children to go to Camp Cispus.

The event at the Northwest Sports Hub in Centralia runs from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m.

Attendees will find carnival games, a magician, a balloon artist, a bouncy house, face painting and even a chance to learn to draw comics, said one of the organizers Amanda Berg.

Sue Tower, their mother, is a friend of hers, she said.

“A fun day, to come out and honor the kids,” Berg said.

Benjamin, 12, Madeline, 10, and Samuel Tower, 7, didn’t make it out of their split-level home on Ham Hill Road during a nighttime fire on March 4. Their mother told investigators she woke up in her lower level bedroom to a sound and tried to make it to her children on the top floor but couldn’t.

Ben went to Camp Cispus last year, and as a sixth grader, was very much looking forward to the springtime school trip to the east end center.

“The memories created last a lifetime,” Sue Tower wrote in a post on Facebook. “If parents can’t come up with the money it sometimes falls on the teachers and administrators reaching into their personal funds to help support.

“I know my children would be honored to know that all children – their friends would be able to go with out any financial stress.”

Berg said a silent auction will be held from noon until 1:30 p.m.

The cost for Sunday’s event is $5 per person or $20 for a family of five. Lunch isn’t covered, but will be available.

A dinner fundraiser was previously scheduled for Saturday night, but is being moved to October, according to Berg.

The Northwest Sports Hub is at 701 Allen Way, near Borst Park in Centralia.

A joint investigation into the cause of the blaze is being conducted by the Centralia Police Department and Riverside Fire Authority. No results as to the cause of the fire have been released, nor have the coroner’s findings as to the cause and manner of the three deaths.

For further information on the fun day, check its Facebook page

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The 61-year-old Mossyrock man arrested for first-degree assault for allegedly breaking through the back door of his house wielding an ax and a screwdriver last week has been charged with second-degree assault and other offenses.

James C. Long had been released from jail a few hours earlier and a court order prohibited him from having contact with his girlfriend at the Naylor Road home. She had friends staying overnight because she feared his return, according to authorities.

James C. Long

Charging papers allege Long assaulted Gerald Core who said he was able to fight Long back out of the house, as Long tried to hit him and stab him with the implements. Core also told a deputy that when Long hopped in a brown pickup to leave, he backed up so fast Core had to jump out the way to avoid being struck.

The truck had been loaded up with household furniture earlier in the day, some of which spilled out onto the road.

When deputies caught up with Long on U.S. Highway 12, early last Friday morning, he told a different version of events.

His arraignment is scheduled for tomorrow in Lewis County Superior Court.

Long was involved in an incident earlier this month, in which he was arrested after an hours-long standoff during which he  allegedly fired multiple rounds out of his house, on Naylor Road, including after deputies arrived. He was charged in Lewis County District Court with fourth-degree assault, reckless endangerment and third-degree malicious mischief, all misdemeanors.

Bail for that case was set at $10,000 and he was ordered to have no contact with his girlfriend.

He was charged on Monday in Lewis County Superior Court with two counts of second-degree assault, first-degree burglary and violation of a court order.

His temporary defense attorney told the judge on Monday afternoon he had no felony convictions in his background when bail was addressed. Judge Richard Brosey set his bail at $50,000.

Attorney Joely O’Rourke also said Long had lived in Lewis County for seven years and was currently unemployed.

Charging documents in his new case indicate Long denies assaulting anyone and denied being at the house, but told a deputy he had permission to go to the property to retrieve his belongings.

The documents offer the following information:

Long appeared intoxicated when law enforcement caught up with him about 2:30 a.m. on Friday on U.S. Highway 12 near then Silver Creek Grange.

He told deputies that earlier he had arrived to the bottom of the hill and yelled out to the Naylor Road residents he was there and they were loading up the truck with his property. He contended Core got into the truck, drove it down to him at the bottom of the hill and that Core jumped out and began to attack him with two axes.

Long exhibited “obvious signs” of intoxication.

When the sheriff’s deputy spoke with Core, he noticed fresh marks on his arms that were bleeding and several marks in his sternum and chest area.

The same deputy interviewed Core and his wife Candy Core, who had been staying the night. They said they had been sitting in the living room when they heard what they thought was the brown pickup truck being started up.

They said they looked out the window, saw Long walk by toward the door and Gerald Core went to the back door to intercept him. That’s when Long allegedly broke in, with the three-foot long ax and the screwdriver.

The 53-year-old girlfriend was sleeping during the incident.

Long’s arraignment is set for 8:40 a.m. tomorrow.
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For background, read “Sheriff’s Office: Mossyrock man returns home from jail, with ax” from Friday April 22, 2016, here

Updated at 10:49 a.m.

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Firefighters and a hazmat team rushed to Cedar Creek Corrections Center in Littlerock yesterday, responding to a white powder scare in the mail room.

Up to 13 people, all employees, were possibly exposed to the unknown material, West Thurston Regional Fire Authority Chief Robert Scott said.

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“One person was directly exposed,” Scott said. “It got all over him as he opened the mail.”

Scott said he asked the Hazmat team from Joint Base Lewis McChord to respond, because they have the ability to do the testing.

It turned out the powder was 75 percent methamphetamine and the rest a cutting agent, Scott said.

Firefighters separated the employee from the other workers, and when they arrived he had already removed his outer clothing, according to Scott.

He didn’t have any complaints, but was transported to Providence St. Peter Hospital as a precaution, in part because of the large amount of material that landed on him, he said.

“It was at least an ounce,” he said.

Pamela Moore, administrative assistant to the Cedar Creek superintendent, said the envelope was addressed to a particular inmate. All letters and packages sent to inmates are opened and inspected for prohibited items, she said.

“We have our inside investigators working on it diligently to see what we can discover,” Moore said. “I believe that other agencies will be involved in regard to this because it was sent through the U.S. mail.”

Responders were summoned to the facility at the 12200 block of Bordeaux Road about 2:25 p.m. and were on the scene until about 5:30 p.m.

Cedar Creek shut down visitation for the day, but will resume as normal on Friday.

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A 52-year-old man escaped serious injury when he intercepted an ax wielding individual at the back door of a Mossyrock area home where he was staying overnight, because the woman who lives there feared her boyfriend who was released from jail earlier in the day.

The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office says James C. Long, 61, broke the door latch and came inside armed with a large ax and a long screwdriver. He allegedly tried to stab and hit the 52-year-old Randle man.

The victim was able to stop him, preventing him access to the rest of the house and the woman, according to the sheriff’s office.

“The victim was able to control the ax and fight Mr Long out,” Chief Deputy Stacy Brown said this morning.

Long reportedly jumped in his truck, tried to run the man down then rammed and shoved a parked vehicle out of the way as he fled the scene, according to Brown.

It happened at the 100 block of Naylor Road, southeast of Mossyrock.

Law enforcement conducted a felony stop on westbound U.S. Highway 12 and arrested Long about 2:30 a.m. today for first-degree assault and other offenses.

Chief Brown said the 53-year-old woman who lives there had two friends stay over, as she was concerned Long might show up despite a no-contact order.

Brown didn’t specify what Long had been in jail for, but earlier this month, he was arrested after an hours-long standoff in which he fired multiple rounds out of the house, including after deputies arrived.

That case was being handled in Lewis County District Court.

After the ax incident, Long was also arrested for burglary and violation of the no contact order and booked into the Lewis County Jail.

The 52-year-old man from Randle suffered small cuts and scrapes, and pain, but no medical attention was necessary, Chief Brown said.
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For background, read “SWAT team summoned after armed Mossy man tells deputies to come and get him” from Sunday April 3, 2016, here

Brian Slater took a “selfie” after he got out of the hospital.

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The 26-year-old woman being held after her boyfriend was stabbed in the neck in Mossyrock returned to court today, but still has not been arraigned.

Grace E. Barker is charged with first-degree assault but concern about her mental stability has interrupted the usual process for defendants.

At a hearing last week in Lewis County Superior Court scheduled for her arraignment, her court appointed lawyer asked instead for a one week postponement.

Grace E. Barker

Centralia attorney Shane O’Rourke told the judge he’d like to wait.

“The competency question is borderline, as far as I can tell in talking with her family,” O’Rourke said.

Lewis County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Will Halstead didn’t object.

Barker attended the hearing, which is more than she did the first afternoon she was supposed to go before a judge. On April 7, temporary defense attorney Joely O’Rourke said she and others tried to speak with Barker at the jail, but Barker was uncommunicative.

The following day, corrections officers used a restraint chair to bring her into the courtroom. Her bail was set at $500,000.

Barker was arrested on April 6, after law enforcement was called to her boyfriend’s home on Mossyrock Road West.

Prosecutors wrote in court documents that Brian Slater was trying to get her to leave his residence when she picked up a knife, and he armed himself with a knife and when he threw his down thinking she had done the same, she stabbed him in the throat.

He told deputies she had been acting unstable.

Slater, 36, was taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle where he underwent surgery and was listed in critical condition.

He suffered a punctured and collapsed lung and a “jugular hematoma”.

The Mossyrock man is home now and, he said late last week, in a great deal of pain.

“It’s really a grizzly wound, but it’s all from the doctor that saved my life,” Slater said of his healing scar. “That’s what the doctor had to do to repair the damage.”

The knife, he said, was an approximately 10-inch long stiletto, a collector-type item of his.

He was anxious to hear what happened in court, with the mother of his baby. Slater was especially pleased lawyers and the judge have been talking about sending Barker to a mental hospital.

She doesn’t belong in a jail cell, as far as he’s concerned.

“That doesn’t mean she needs to be let go and go home,” Slater said.

Slater doesn’t make any mentions of feeling anger, just concern that Barker gets help. He’s 100 percent supportive of her, he said.

“She’s an incredibly intelligent person with an unbelievable amount of challenges,” he said. “And she’s dealt with it with grace.”

He’s not sure what day he got home from the hospital, and much about his stay there is fuzzy. He said he recalled one visitor, but learned later as many as eight people had been there, and were told he might not make it.

His sister who lives in California and created a Go-Fund-Me page for her brother says he got release three days after the attack. She created the donation page in hopes of helping Slater replace tools and other valuables that were missing when he returned home. He said he arrived to find his door wide open.

Barker this afternoon went before Judge Richard Brosey for the third time.

O’Rourke told the judge he thought she should be seen by experts from Western State Hospital to determine if she’s competent.

Individuals must be competent enough to understand their court proceedings and must be competent enough to effectively assist their lawyer in their defense.

O’Rourke said he’s not the professional who can decide that, so it’s just prudent to have it done.

“With all the references to behaving in ways that don’t make sense, it makes sense to have her evaluated by Western State,” he said.

The court scheduled a review hearing for May 11.
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For background, read “Mossyrock argument: Two knives, one airlifted, other arrested” from Thursday April 7, 2016, here

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A Winlock man was sentenced yesterday in federal court to six months in prison, six months of home detention, three years of supervised release and ordered to pay nearly $160,000 for violating the Lacey Act by trafficking in big leaf maple illegally cut on national forest land.

Harold Clause Kupers, 48, pleaded guilty in November, and admitted he suspected the specialty maple had been illegally taken from the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.

Courtesy photo by U.S. Attorney’s Office

Kupers was the owner and operator of the now defunct J & L Tonewoods, which sold the wood to purchasers in interstate commerce for total revenues of $499,414, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

The maple is particularly valuable for musical instruments.

Kupers was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Tacoma by Judge Benjamin H. Settle.

“You were a central figure in what made this all [the stolen maple trade] work … You knew you were getting stolen wood, but you hid behind ignorance,” Settle said.

U.S. Attorney Annette L. Hayes said Kupers acted as essentially a fence for stolen goods.

“As long as unscrupulous mill owners like this defendant create a market for poached wood, our protected forests are at risk,” Hayes stated in a news release.

According to the plea agreement, in April 2012, law enforcement officers with the U.S. Forest Service met with Kupers and specifically informed him that he was required by Washington law to review specialized forest products permits for all persons from whom he purchased maple.

Despite that, he admitted, he continued to buy the wood without requiring the harvesters to show the permit until March 2014.

Three men who illegally cut the wood previously pleaded guilty to theft of public property or conspiracy to steal public property for illegally harvesting the maple trees in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest in November and December 2011 and May 2012.

James Miller, 36, of Morton was sentenced in February to six months in prison and three years of supervised release. Ryan Justice, 28, of Randle, was sentenced in December to 15 months in prison. Kevin Mullins, 56, of Packwood, is scheduled for sentencing June 6.
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For background, read “Feds: Winlock mill owner admits illegal buying and selling of specialty maple ‘music wood’ ” from Monday November 16, 2015, here

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By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Two individuals were brought before a  judge this afternoon in connection with alleged cocaine dealing, following their arrests by drug detectives in the Grand Mound area

Eighteen-year-old Leonardo A. Flores-Martinez is charged with twice selling to a confidential informant.

He lives with his parents in Rochester and told police he was born into the Surreno gang, according to court documents.

When the home of 32-year-old Esteban A. Vasquez III was searched yesterday, law enforcement officers allegedly found  in a shirt in his closet a digital scale and approximately 15 grams of cocaine, charging documents state. A loaded Glock was also removed from his closet, according to prosecutors.

The arrests came yesterday after Lewis County’s Joint Narcotics Enforcement Team served a search warrant at Vasquez’s Grand Mound home.

Flores-Martinez was contacted outside, taken into custody and allegedly confessed that was the residence where he got his supply.

Vasquez was not home, but voluntarily returned to the scene, Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Paul Masiello told a judge this afternoon.

“He was informed what law enforcement discovered and nodded his head in affirmation,” Masiello wrote in court documents.

Vasquez was charged today in Lewis County Superior Court with one count of possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver. Because he has a prior felony conviction, he was also charged with second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm.

Charging documents state detectives found indications of gang affiliation in his bedroom.

Defense attorney Joely O’Rourke told the judge Vasquez grew up in Centralia and has strong community ties. He’s currently working at a Lacey mattress manufacturer and has been there for three years, she said in seeking his release on a $10,000 unsecured bond.

Flores-Martinez was charged with two counts of delivery of a controlled substance – for instances between March 1 and yesterday – and one count of possession of methamphetamine, for what was retrieved from his pocket yesterday.

He’s unemployed and has a recent case from March 22 of possession of a controlled substance as well as driving under the influence, the two lawyers said.

Judge Richard Brosey set his bail at $25,000.

While court documents show both men with Rochester mailing addresses, charging papers state the various offenses all occurred in Lewis County.

Their arraignments were scheduled for next Thursday.