Lewis County Sirens.com

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

The Thurston County Sheriff’s Office is seeking information about a missing mother who hasn’t been seen since she left her home for a trip to the mall before Christmas.

Kyndra L. Nevils

At about 7 p.m. last Saturday evening, Kyndra L. Nevils departed her residence east of Tumwater to go to the Capitol Mall in west Olympia, according to the sheriff’s office.

She left her children at home with a roommate and never arrived at the mall, according to Sgt. Ray Brady.

She wasn’t driving and deputies don’t think she took a bus as she had planned, Brady said in a news release.

Her home is in the general area of Yelm Highway and College Street, according to Brady.

Nevils, 33, is described as 5-feet 3-inches tall with a medium build and black hair with green eyes, according to the sheriff’s office.

She has a tattoo on her upper chest. She has no known medical conditions.

Anyone who sees her or knows her whereabouts is asked to call the sheriff’s office at 360-704-2740.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The documentary featuring the coroner’s inquest into the controversial death in Toledo of former trooper Ronda Reynolds will air once again on national television tomorrow night.

Ronda Reynolds

48 Hours Mystery, CBS’s true crime series, first aired the case in April.

Reynolds, 33, died with a bullet in her head in the home she shared with husband of less than a year, Ron Reynolds and his sons. She was found dead on the floor of a small walk-in closet, covered up by a turned-on electric blanket the morning of Dec. 16, 1998.

Her death was labeled by then-Coroner Terry Wilson and the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office as a suicide, but her unconvinced mother Barbara Thompson battled for more than a decade for a more thorough investigation of what she believed was more likely murder.

A five-member inquest jury last year was unanimous in its conclusions of homicide and named Ron and Jonathan Reynolds as responsible.

Ron and Jonathan Reynolds maintain the death was a suicide and they were not involved. They were not charged with any crime.

The piece, dubbed “Mystery on Twin Peaks Drive” will show at 10 p.m. on Saturday night.
•••

Read an interview with 48 Hours’ interviewer Peter Van Sant for his take on the case, here

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Sabino Gomez-Barriga is scheduled to make a guilty plea in the case in which he is accused of stabbing a co-worker in the throat at a Centralia wholesale meat business early last month.

Sabino Gomez-Barriga

Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Shane O’Rourke confirmed a plea agreement has been tentatively reached but wouldn’t discuss the details until the deal is completed in front of a judge.

“We think we’ve resolved the case,” O’Rourke said today.

Gomez-Barriga, 35, was arrested on Nov. 7 after a fight at the Five Star Beef Company on Airport Road.

Prosecutors said 21-year-old Jorge Juarez punched Gomez-Barriga, who responded by jabbing Juarez with the blunt end of a meat hook and then sticking him in the neck with a boning knife.

Gomez-Barriga was charged with first-degree assault.

Juarez, a Centralia resident, was in grave condition initially, and underwent “pretty intense” surgery, but has improved immensely, according to O’Rourke.

“The latest update I have, he’s made a full recovery,” he said.

Gomez-Barriga, who lives in downtown Chehalis, remains held in the Lewis County Jail on $250,000 bail.

A court hearing is set for next Thursday afternoon, with time set aside for Gomez-Barriga to change his plea and be sentenced.
•••

For background, read “Centralia slaughterhouse fight involved meathook and boning knife” from Friday November 9, 2012, here

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

An appeals court yesterday tossed out a rural Chehalis man’s conviction for luring saying it wasn’t a crime when he rode his bicycle past a child and stated, “Do you want some candy? I’ve got some at my house.”

The incident occurred in January 2011 near the Doty General Store when Russell D. Homan made the comment to a 9-year-old boy headed in the same direction, according to the opinion.

Homan continued on his Superman BMX child’s bicycle without slowing, stopping or looking back, according to C.C. Bridgewater, author of the opinion.

Homan was convicted by a judge in Lewis County Superior Court the summer before last of luring, a class C felony, and sentenced to 120 days.

His lawyer argued in appeal that the evidence was insufficient to support a conviction and the majority of the appeals court judges agreed, although noted his statement was probably ill-advised.

Washington Court of Appeals Division II yesterday reversed and remanded for dismissal with prejudice.

One member of the three-judge panel dissented, saying Homan was a stranger who attempted to lure a child to his house with candy.

For more, see State of Washington, respondent v. Russell David Homan, appellant: 42529-7

Firefighters attack flames at an Alpha Way home today. / Courtesy photo by David Jackson, Lewis County Fire District 1

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

A large appliance that is unrecognizable after a residential fire in Onalaska today is to blame for burns sustained by the 58-year-old resident.

“The woman tried to push it out the back door, she ended up burning her hands, we had to take her to the hospital,” Lewis County Fire District 1 Chief Mark Conner said.

Firefighters were called just after 12 p.m. to the 200 block of Alpha Way, off Beck Road north of Middle Fork Road when the appliance caught fire.

The single-wide mobile home had been added onto multiple times giving the flames numerous places to move, into the walls and into the ceiling, according to Conner.

He described the structural damage as about 15 percent of the home, and somehow next to no damage to its contents.

“It took a while of digging around to get it all out,” he said.

The mystery appliance was situated in between the living room and the kitchen, and vented outside through a wall, he said.

The woman was taken to Providence Centralia Hospital. Conner didn’t have an update about her condition.

District 1 was joined by neighboring departments from rural Chehalis and Napavine and wrapped up about 2:30 p.m., he said.

A fire investigator is looking into the cause, according to Conner.