Lewis County Sirens.com

By Sharyn L. Decker

Lewis County Sirens news reporter

Fourteen people evacuated themselves from a north Centralia home when a fire broke out in a back bedroom early this morning. Nobody was injured.

Firefighters called about 4:50 a.m. to the 1500 block of Crescent Avenue found a moderate amount of smoke coming from the three bedroom manufactured home, according to Riverside Fire Authority.

Acting Fire Capt. Jennifer Ternan said she believed four of the occupants were children, and there were a couple of dogs as well.

Firefighters extinguished a small amount of bedding, she said. The damage was contained to the bedroom, with only a small spot of the flooring burned, she said.

Ternan didn’t have all the details as she didn’t conduct the interview, but a 4-year-old child will be referred to the department’s juvenile fire starter program, she said.

The residents were able to reoccupy the home after it was over, she said.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A 42-year-old woman walking in the slow lane on the freeway in Chehalis overnight escaped serious injury when a truck swerved and struck her with its passenger side mirror.

The U-Haul moving truck driven by a woman from Snohomish County and headed southbound just south of the Main Street overpass.

“The pedestrian was kind of thrown onto the gore point, between the exit and the freeway,” Trooper Will Finn said.

Troopers and aid called about 3:10 a.m. found Melonie M. Tevyaw’s injuries were fairly minor. What she was doing on the freeway is unclear.

“She told the trooper she was on her way to Olympia,” Finn said. “There was no disabled vehicle nearby, there was no reason she should have been on the freeway, certainly not in the lane.”

Finn said Tevya’s last known address is in Tacoma. She had no impairment from drugs or alcohol, but the investigating trooper said there was a some kind of mental issue involved, Finn said.

A sad consequence of the incident, Finn said, is the woman driving the truck was moving to Sacramento and had her cat with her in the cab of the vehicle.

When the mirror popped back, it shattered the window, the cat jumped out and was run over, he said. It didn’t survive.

Tevyaw was transported by ambulance to Providence Centralia Hospital where she was got some stitches above her eye, according to Finn.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

The National Weather Service cautions significant rainfall today could cause flash flooding and overwhelm storm drains, leading to flooded roads.

Most of Western Washington remains under a flood watch through tomorrow evening, with the heaviest rainfall expected later tonight through tomorrow morning, according to the weather service.

It could led to urban and small stream flooding, but actual river flooding is unlikely, according to the NWS.

The 5 a.m. notification indicates also a short period of intense rainfall accompanying thunder storms.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Lewis County Superior Court Judge Richard Brosey made clear he wants to hold a hearing on convicted triple murderer John Allen Booth Jr.’s allegations of eavesdropping by the state on Lewis County Jail inmates and wants his attorneys to have the benefit of all the materials they are seeking to present the issue.

“I want to go through the entire process because when we do have a hearing, I want all the information available,” Brosey said in court yesterday.

John A. Booth Jr.

Court assigned defense attorney Erik Kupka and his office partner David Mistashkin were in Lewis County Superior Court yesterday afternoon asking for an order that prosecutors turn over certain documents.

Kupka called the issue a constitutional matter, the remedy for which could be a new trial.

Booth is serving a life sentence following his December 2011 conviction in the shooting deaths the year before of David West Sr., 52; his son David “D.J.” West Jr., 16; and 50-year-old Tony Williams of Randle. West Sr.’s live-in girlfriend Denise Salts was shot in the face but survived. Prosecutors said the slayings in the Onalaska-Salkum area home came about because Booth and his former cell mate were “taxing” West Sr. on behalf of Lewis County drug dealer Robbie Russell.

Booth denies he shot them. Booth didn’t attend yesterday’s hearing.

The proceedings relate to Booth’s motion to vacate his judgement and sentence which he filed late last year from Walla Walla State Penitentiary. It alleges governmental misconduct and the state’s infringement of his right to counsel.

His main contention is law enforcement officers listened from outside the jail’s row of visiting rooms while he consulted with his attorneys, rooms in which people almost had to yell back and forth to be heard through the transparent partitions.

Lewis County Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecutor Brad Meagher asked the court yesterday to rule against the pair of defense attorneys.

“In any stretch of the imagination, there is no legal authority for what they request,” Meagher said.

Brosey agreed the information they sought was not possessed by prosecutors, but by the jail, and advised them to continue pursuing the documents through public records requests. Kupka and Mistashkin said they’ve been doing that, but the pages have ben heavily redacted.

Kupka was appointed by Brosey in late January to represent Booth on his self-filed motion. Brosey presided over the Dec. 2011 trial.

Kupka and Mistashkin told the judge they still have not been able to get a hold of copies of material from the case from the lawyer who represented Booth during his trial. Meagher offered to share with them everything he turned over to the previous attorney.

Brosey noted more than once it was troubling to him the defense attorney, Roger Hunko, never raised the privacy issue as a problem during the trial.

“I don’t think there’s anything in the record that occurred,” he said.

The attorneys, who work in Grays Harbor County, have an appointment set to interview Booth in Walla Walla on Sept. 26.
•••

For background, read “Ear hustling”: Convicted murderer John Booth tells judge about problems at Lewis County Jail” from Friday July 5, 2013, here

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CENTRALIA – Someone set fire to a headless dog carcass in downtown Centralia.

“There was a dog that was on fire, it was put out by responders,” Riverside Fire Authority Capt. Erik Olson said. Police are handling the investigation, he said.

Firefighters and police were called about 1:20 a.m. yesterday to the scene, near the railroad tracks at Walnut Street.

Centralia area resident Jennifer Yocum was nearby at a friend’s home when the fire trucks arrived.

“We thought, oh, something’s on fire, it smells horrible,” Yocom said.

It was a large dog, that looked like it had black short hair, with some burned clothing or something similar next to it, Yocom said.

Centralia Police Department Sgt. Kurt Reichert said it appeared the dog must have already been decapitated and dead before it and some debris around it were lit on fire. He didn’t know where it came from.

Yocom was dismayed this afternoon to see the animal still lay in between the two sets of railroad tracks. Further details were not readily available today.