By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a partial human skull found by a hiker on Saturday near Mineral.
Detectives, with help from members of Lewis County Search and Rescue, are continuing to search the wooded area for potential evidence, according to a news release this morning.
The skull will be sent to a forensic pathologist for further examination, according to Chief Deputy Stacy Brown.
More to come
This news story was updated at 9:15 a.m. on Wednesday March 30, 2011
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
The death penalty is off the table for John Allen Booth Jr., a defendant in last August’s triple slaying inside a Salkum-Onalaska area home.
Booth, 31, is charged with aggravated first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of David J. West Jr., 16, and Tony E. Williams, 50, of Randle.
Deputies investigate off Gore Road on Aug. 21, 2010
He is also charged in the death of David J. West Sr. 52, and the non-fatal shooting of 51-year-old Denise Salts. He has pleaded not guilty.
Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer filed notice on Friday he will not seek the death penalty if Booth is convicted.
“After looking at everything, meeting with the family, looking at the case and talking with prosecutors inside and outside the office, I decided not to seek the death penalty,” Meyer said today.
Meyer declined to share what the victims’ family members thought of his decision, saying those are private conversations.
Previous Lewis County Prosecutor Michael Golden left the potential option open, but was voted out of office in November. Meyer, a former defense attorney, stepped into the elected position in January.
Booth’s attorney, James Dixon, said his client is pleased with the prosecutor’s decision, and anxious to proceed to trial.
Booth and former prison cell mate Ryan J. McCarthy, 29, of Redmond, are charged in the case.
Authorities have said they believe the two men’s Aug. 21 visit to the house on Wings Way off Gore Road was related to a drug debt collection.
Booth, a former Onalaska resident, is set for trial the week of May 16, however, prosecutors have asked a judge to consolidate the two cases into one trial.
McCarthy’s trial is scheduled for the week of Oct. 10.
Dixon indicated he will oppose the motion.
“He has a right to a speedy trial,” Dixon said in an emailed note. “He has waived that right already, but that waiver does not extend to the date currently set for Mr. McCarthy’s trial.”
•••
Read background on the case:
• “West Sr. pointed shotgun telling pair of ex-cons to leave his house, triggering triple homicide, unsealed court documents allege” from Saturday Sept. 4, 2010, here
• “Unsealed document: More details on Salkum slayings” from Monday Sept. 6, 2010, here
Two trailer loads of chickens on their way to a processing plant overturned outside Centralia this morning / Courtesy photo by Lewis County Sheriff's Office
This was updated at 11:20 a.m.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
A semi-truck carrying some 5,000 chickens rolled over this morning on Salzer Valley Road outside Centralia sending one man to the hospital and closing down the roadway temporarily.
Riverside Fire Authority called shortly after 8 a.m. to the wreck near Centralia-Alpha Road found the 22-year-old driver sustained minor injuries. He was taken to Providence Centralia Hospital, according to fire Capt. Scott Snyder.
Some of the chickens escaped and some were not so fortunate, according to Snyder.
There were “quite a few” chickens all over the place, Snyder said.
“They’re going to be picked up by the farm and sorted out cause there were some fatalities I guess,” Snyder said.
The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office reported numerous chickens died and the “several” injured poultry were to be taken away to be euthanized.
The Freightliner truck was hauling two trailers loaded with 26 crates of poultry, according to the sheriff’s office.
The birds were on their way from a farm on Schafer Road to a Foster farms processing plant in Kelso, Chief Deputy Stacy Brown reported.
The truck driver, a Kelso resident, failed to negotiate a corner and drove onto the soft shoulder which caused the truck to roll, according to Brown. He is expected to be cited for going too fast.
The semi belongs to Signature trucking.
Courtesy photo by the Lewis County Sheriff's Office
Courtesy photo by the Lewis County Sheriff's Office
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
A flood watch is in effect for Lewis and other counties in Western Washington from tomorrow afternoon into Friday as expected heavy rain combines with rising freezing levels.
A warm and strong Pacific storm system will bring rain later tonight and is expected to stall over the area for 24 to 48 hours, according to the National Weather Service.
Counties under the flood watch include Lewis, Thurston, Mason, Pierce, Clallam, Jefferson, Whatcom, Skagit, Snohomish and King counties.
A flood watch means conditions are favorable for flooding but it is not imminent or occurring. The weather service recommends folks monitor weather forecasts.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
A Toledo man was seriously injured after a Friday night single-vehicle collision on the 400 block of South Jackson Highway.
Frances M. Wharton, 48, suffered facial trauma when his sport utility vehicle struck a utility pole, according to the Washington State Patrol.
A trooper called to the scene about 9:30 p.m. reported the 1994 Ford explorer was northbound when it ran along a ditch about 100 feet and hit the pole.
The Washington State Patrol said Wharton was flown by helicopter to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. However, a hospital spokesperson said they had no record of him being admitted.
His vehicle as described as totaled.
Photo shared by Kari Johnson
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
A Rochester man was listed in critical condition yesterday after a Saturday afternoon collision on Interstate 5 north of Castle Rock.
Michael T. Burleson, 27, of Rochester was a passenger in a northbound car about 2:15 p.m. on Saturday which lost control and ran into the rear of a disabled vehicle on the right shoulder near milepost 53, according to the Washington State Patrol.
Burleson suffered a cracked skull, a broken neck and five broken ribs, according to the state patrol. He was flown to Southwest Washington Medical Center in Vancouver, the patrol reported.
The driver of the 1996 Nissan 2SX he was traveling in, Guy B. Rostan, 26, also of Rochester, was taken to St. John Medical Center in Longview with head and chest injuries. A hospital spokesperson said yesterday Rostan was treated and released.
The state patrol blamed the hydroplaning on driving too fast.
A 50-year-old Portland woman in the 2005 Mitsubishi Montero that they hit – Maria O’Brien – was admitted to St. John Medical Center and in stable condition yesterday.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
The Olympian reports the Tenino man found with a dead woman wrapped in a sleeping bag in the passenger compartment of his truck in August has pleaded guilty.
Bernard K. Howell III
Bernard K. Howell III, now 27, was charged in Thurston County Superior Court in the death of Vanda Skau Boone, a woman prosecutors believe met her fate on the bicycle path known as the Yelm to Tenino Trail.
Investigators said the 60-year-old woman’s throat was cut. Boone was a massage therapist who worked in Olympia and lived in Yelm.
Olympian news reporter Jeremy Pawloski writes a sentencing date has not yet been set for the self-employed door-to-door meat salesman.
Read The Olympian’s story here
Read background on the case here
CORRECTION: This headline referring to a news story in The Olympian was corrected to reflect that, despite what The Olympian reported, there was no plea agreement in Howell’s case.
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