Lewis County Sirens.com

Reginald L. Juntunen pleads guilty to child molestation in Lewis County Superior Court.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The Winlock man accused of sexually assaulting an 8-year-old girl in a Mossyrock area campground restroom pleaded guilty this afternoon following a deal that will give him a sentence of 25 years to life.

Reginald L. Juntunen, 24, was arrested this summer after he was identified through DNA as a suspect in the unsolved case from September 2007.

Juntunen admitted he had sexual contact with the girl when asked by Judge Richard Brosey what he did  that constituted first-degree child molestation.

His mother, father and sister left the courtroom without comment after the brief hearing.

The Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office initially charged him with first-degree rape of a child, but altered the allegations early on to include “or in the alternative, first-degree child molestation.”

At the time, Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Joely O’Rourke said it was a precaution in case there were discrepancies in the victim’s statement.

The victim just turned 13.

O’Rourke said it was a good outcome in the case and the girl was “really happy” when she learned he would plead guilty.

Chehalis defense attorney Chris Baum said it’s a stiff penalty, but his client faced the possibility of “quite a bit more time” if he went to trial and lost.

Juntunen also pleaded guilty today to unrelated charges from incidents that took place this year; a burglary and selling stolen jewelry.

Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 12.
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“Suspect pleads not guilty to modified charges in Mossyrock sexual assault of girl” from Friday Aug. 3, 2012, here

Sabino Gomez-Barriga, right, consults with his attorney Bob Schroeter via an interpreter in Lewis County Superior Court.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Bail was set at $250,000 for the man who allegedly stabbed a co-worker in the throat at a wholesale meat business in Centralia.

Sabino Gomez-Barriga, 35, is jailed and facing a charge of first-degree assault after the incident on Wednesday morning on the 1700 block of Airport Road.

The victim, 21-year-old Jorge Juarez of Centralia, remained in a critical care unit, prosecutors said yesterday.

According to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office, it began as an argument between the two men and quickly turned physical. What the disagreement was over hasn’t been disclosed publicly.

Aid crews were summoned about 11:10 a.m. on Wednesday to what they initially were told was an accident and they requested an airlift for the patient, according to Riverside Fire Authority. About 20 minutes later, police from multiple agencies were dispatched, but Gomez-Barriga had fled on foot, charging documents state.

An airplane from the state patrol flew over the area and a tracking dog requested but by about 1 p.m. Gomez-Barriga was located at the San Juan Arms Apartments downtown Chehalis, according to authorities.

Gomez-Barriga said it was an accident and that he got a ride back to his apartment because he was scared, charging documents say.

The Five Star Beef Company alongside Interstate 5 was previously a slaughterhouse called The Beef Shop and before that was Midway Meats. The weapon was described as a sharp boning knife.

Gomez-Barriga spoke with his attorney through a Spanish interpreter when he went before a judge yesterday afternoon in Lewis County Superior Court.

Deputy Prosecutor Shane O’Rourke asked for $500,000 bail arguing a danger to the community and a flight risk.

When police arrived, the suspect was getting into a vehicle saying he was on his way to dinner in Olympia, O’Rourke told the judge. “We think otherwise,” he said.

Defense attorney Bob Schroeter requested $50,000 bail, noting his client has no criminal history and has lived in Chehalis for three years.

“I’m confident there is a lot more to this story that we don’t realize,” Schroeter said. “Especially given the language barrier here.”

Charging documents describe what the sheriff’s office learned from another worker who witnessed the alleged attack.

Juan Lopez said he was working inside the building with the two men when a verbal confrontation began, charging documents state.

They go on to give the following account: Lopez said Juarez struck Gomez-Barriga in the face with his fist and then Gomez-Barriga grabbed a metal meat hook, using the blunt end to begin jabbing Juarez in the abdomen.

Juarez backed away, but Gomez-Barriga grabbed a sharp boning knife that is used at work and stabbed Juarez directly in the throat.

The younger man put his hand on his throat, but when he removed it to open a door and leave, blood started to spurt everywhere.

When Gomez-Barriga was interviewed by a sheriff’s detective and an officer fluent in Spanish, he admitted there was an incident in which his co-worker was injured.

Gomez-Barriga contended he was flailing to try to stab a third person who was holding him from behind when he accidentally stabbed Juarez.

When asked why he didn’t call for help after he was punched or why he escalated to using a deadly weapon, Gomez-Barriga responded there were women at work and he didn’t want to “look like a kid in front of them.”

Riverside Fire Authority Capt. Terry Ternan said people were putting direct pressure on the victim’s wound when aid arrived and he was taken to Providence Centralia Hospital.

On Wednesday, the sheriff’s office said the victim was in critical condition, but yesterday morning sheriff’s Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown said his injuries were no longer believed to be life-threatening.

The sheriff’ office initially reported Juarez’s age as 30, but yesterday said he was 21.

Charging documents presented in  court yesterday afternoon say Juarez survived his surgery at Providence, but remained intubated, unable to speak and not able to give a statement.

Gomez-Barriga will be back in the courtroom next Thursday to make his pleas.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

A 39-year-old Toledo motorist was rescued after he was stranded as long as two hours this morning when he missed a stop sign in the fog and launched his vehicle off the road, over a creek and into several trees.

It happened at Grimes and Evans roads northeast of Toledo.

The man, whose name was not released, was flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, according to Lewis County Fire District 2.

He suffered several traumatic injuries but was alert and oriented when he was found, Fire Chief Grant Wiltbank said.

Wiltbank said it appeared the man had been traveling south on Grimes Road at a fairly high rate of speed when he came to stop sign at the T-intersection.

“He proceeded to glance off several trees and vault over a 20-foot (wide) creek,” Wiltbank said.

The vehicle, so badly damaged the chief couldn’t say what it was, came to rest about 50 feet off the road. Wiltbank wasn’t sure what time the accident occurred.

“He said it took him an hour to find his cell phone, in the dark,” Wiltbank said. “The car was destroyed around him and he was hurt.”

The man called a family member who called 911 about 6:15 a.m., he said.

Responders waded across the approximately three-foot deep icy cold creek to carry him back on a stretcher, the chief said.

It was too foggy for a helicopter, so a plane with medics picked him up at the Centralia-Chehalis Airport to fly him to Seattle.

Wiltbank said despite the injuries, it looks like it turned out miraculously well.

“If he had not found his cell phone and somebody did not know he was missing, the outcome would have been different,” he said.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Well sure, Initiative 502 has passed but don’t think you can walk down the street and light up a bowl without getting arrested.

For starters, the new law regarding marijuana won’t take effect for 30 days, according to Centralia Police Chief Bob Berg.

And rules have to be written, Chehalis Police Chief Glenn Schaffer said.

“The questions are going to be confusing for people and the police,” Schaffer said yesterday. “We’ve been talking about it from a law enforcement perspective all day.”

The police chiefs of the two largest cities in Lewis County indicate they will be getting guidance from their legal advisors and / or other state and federal authorities.

Sheriff Steve Mansfield is looking to the county prosecutor and a communication from the Municipal Research and Services Center of Washington for answers.

Its article disseminated yesterday indicates that as of Dec. 6, it will be legal under state law for individuals 21 or older to possess as much as one ounce of marijuana.

But it will be more than a year before licenses are issued to growers, distributors and retailers, according to the Municipal Research and Services Center of Washington.

However, the sheriff says: “It is business as usual for us until all this gets finalized.”

The decisions about felony charges, and for misdemeanor crimes when the arrests come from the sheriff’s office and the state patrol in Lewis County are made by the elected prosecutor.

Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer yesterday morning met with the prosecutor in Thurston County on the topic and is studying the issue.

“We’re going though our analysis, figuring out the impact on us,” Meyer said.

There are still more questions than answers.

Marijuana remains illegal under federal law, and Meyer isn’t certain the feds won’t play a role in how or whether the changes unfold.

“I suspect the federal government will step in and maybe issue an injunction,” he said.

The former defense attorney even hinted some police agencies may choose to continue to view marijuana as illegal.

“The way Arizona as a state enforced federal statutes in the immigration issue,” he said.

Mansfield said he’s disappointed, but as the elected sheriff, he serves the people.

“Lewis County said they don’t want this, but it’s statewide,” he said, referring to the preliminary ballot tallies.

Only 44 percent of Lewis County voters favored the measure, while 55 percent of voters throughout Washington said yes to I-502.

“If the law says this is what we’ll do, this is what we’ll do,” Mansfield said.
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For further information:

• Chief Schaffer shared a summary to legislators that shed some light for him. Read it here

• “What’s next for pot use in Washington? It’s a bit hazy” from The Olympian on Wednesday November 7, 2012, here

• “Pot legal Dec. 6, ‘jury is out on what happens’ after that” by The Seattle Times on Wednesday November 7, 2012 at 9:14 p.m. and November 8, 2012 at 3:52 p.m., here

• “Inquiries about pot production, sale flood two state agencies” from The Olympian on Thursday November 8, 2012, here

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Skeletal remains found in Randle last year have been positively identified as a woman who disappeared from her Randle home about a mile and a half away several months before.

Trisha McKenzie-Fire

The Lewis County Coroner’s Office said this morning they are those of 58-year-old Trisha McKenzie-Fire.

The determination was made through a joint effort by a forensic anthropologist in King County and a local dentist who specializes in making identification through teeth, according to Coroner Warren McLeod.

McKenzie-Fire was reported missing by her live-in boyfriend in April 2011. Kent Anderson said he woke up one morning and she was gone from their home on Silverbrook Road, although she left her purse behind. Human remains were found the following September in a field on Joerk Road in Randle.

The cause and manner of her death remain under investigation, according to McLeod.

Anderson has since died. McLeod said all efforts to locate and notify McKenzie-Fire’s next-of-kin have been unsuccessful
•••

For background, read: “Breaking news: Human remains found in Randle” from Monday Sept. 26,  2011, here

Jack Silverthorne is unrepresented in Lewis County Superior Court as he asks a judge to dismiss his manslaughter conviction.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The 21-year-old sent off to prison last year after admitting he fatally punched a 16-year-old Morton boy in the head was back in court yesterday, asking to be set free.

Jack A. Silverthorne, now 22, filed a motion in Lewis County Superior Court from his cell at Coyote Ridge Corrections Center in Eastern Washington.

“It’s based on he’s never been in trouble before, and he was encouraged to take the plea,” his mother Kathryn Silverthorne said.

Silverthorne said her son rightfully ought to have been convicted of something less than he was, but didn’t understand, and just did what his defense attorney told him to do.

Austin King

The Renton resident was arrested in November 2010 in connection with the death of Austin King that summer.

The 16-year-old vanished from his family’s home in the Tilton River Mobile Home Park early on June 23 and was the subject of a month-long search headed up by volunteers. His body was found some 10 miles away off a logging road outside Morton.

Silverthorne was staying with his grandmother in the trailer park and was one of two “buddies” Austin was with the last time Austin’s mother saw her son alive.

Since there was no trial, the details of exactly what happened or why were never revealed in court. The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office believed there was a fight about a girl.

Pursuant to a plea agreement, Silverthorne pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter – recklessly causing the death of another person – and was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison, the high end of the standard sentencing range for the crime.

He sat before Judge James Lawler yesterday afternoon without an attorney.

The hearing was brief. Silverthorne’s mother and sister were the only spectators in the Chehalis courtroom.

Yesterday was the first time she’d seen her son since he was sentenced early last year, his mother said. He was almost unrecognizable, she said. Since he was locked up, her son has lost a huge amount of weight, she said.

Kathryn Silverthorne said she understands the weight loss is due to medication prescribed after he was diagnosed in jail or prison with bipolar disease.

Lewis County Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecutor Brad Meagher objected to the self-crafted motion.

Lawler denied the motion, but noted it was more appropriately filed with the state Court of Appeals as a personal restraint petition. The judge certified the documents to be filed as such.

Outside the courtroom, Meagher said Silverthorne has the right to file the petition, that basically asks to be let out of prison.

But Meagher wasn’t optimistic about that happening.

Personal restraint petitions are usually something filed after someone is found guilty, Meagher said.

“But he pled guilty,” he said.

•••

For background, read “Morton teen homicide case ends with guilty plea” from Saturday May 7, 2011, here

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown of the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office says deputies were searching for a 35-year-old man after he stabbed a co-worker in the neck at the Beef Shop on Airport Road this morning.

Sabino Gomez Barriga

It happened about 11:30 a.m., according to Brown.

The victim is in critical condition at Providence Centralia Hospital, she said.

The suspect, Sabino Gomez Barriga of Chehalis, fled the scene on foot shortly after it occurred, according to Brown. He was taken into custody and is enroute to the Lewis County Jail, according to Brown.

Brown says little is known about the victim at this time. Deputies are waiting for an interpreter to arrive at the hospital to learn more about what occurred, she said.