Lewis County Sirens.com

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

Police are looking for a man who robbed a smoke shop on West Main Street in Centralia this evening.

Officers were called about 7:07 p.m. to the business on the south side of the 600 block of West Main Street where a clerk said a male came into the shop, displayed a small handgun and demanded money.

The clerk, who is in her late 20s to early 30s, told police he slammed her head into a door and took all the cash in the till, according to Officer Chris Fitzgerald.

She was alone in the store, Smokin’ J’s Smoke Shop, Fitzgerald said.

The subject left on foot, heading east on Main Street, according to the Centralia Police Department.

The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office K-9 was called to the scene to assist in the search; its track ended in an alley a short distance away, according to police.

The robber was described as about 6 feet tall with a medium build. He was wearing a dark blue or black “hoody” type sweatshirt with the hood up, along with large gold sunglasses and a white baseball cap, according to police.

The clerk thought he might possibly be Hispanic, but she didn’t know, Fitzgerald said.

Police would like anyone with information about the incident to call 911 or the Centralia Police Department.

Barb Thompson answers news media questions after the hearing in the state Court of Appeals in Tacoma.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

TACOMA – The new Lewis County coroner and Barb Thompson – mother of former state trooper Ronda Reynolds whose 1998 death in Toledo remains under scrutiny – were at the state Court of Appeals in Tacoma yesterday as three judges pondered the case.

Former Lewis County Coroner Terry Wilson’s appeal of a 2009 judge’s order to remove suicide from Reynolds’ death certificate remains active, even though newly elected Coroner Warren McLeod has indicated he wants to revisit the cause and manner of death.

Ronda Reynolds

The case was the subject of a judicial review in Lewis County in November 2009 after which a panel of citizens concluded then-Coroner Wilson’s determination that Reynolds’ died of suicide was arbitrary, capricious and incorrect. A judge ordered Wilson to change the manner of death, but Wilson appealed.

A panel of three judges heard from attorneys on both sides yesterday in downtown Tacoma.

The 2009 judicial review was unprecedented and Thompson wants to see its scope expanded while the coroner’s office lawyer has been fighting to see it narrowed.

“I think one of the reasons we’re here today is to try to clarify the law,” Thompson said.

Her lawyer, Royce Ferguson, wants a judge to be able to decide more than that a coroner’s decision was wrong.

“If it’s not suicide, what is it?” Ferguson said. “And if it’s homicide, who changes (the death certificate)? The judge? The coroner? The prosecutor?”

Olympia attorney John Justice, who was hired by the Lewis County Prosecutors Office to represent Wilson, told the three appeals judges yesterday that’s beyond the scope of any case law.

Thompson has been vigorously questioning her daughter’s death – believed by the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office to be suicide – for more than a dozen years.

The 33-year-old woman was found with a bullet in her head and covered by a turned-on electric blanket on the floor of a closet in the home she shared with her husband of less than a year, Ron Reynolds, the principal at Toledo Elementary School

Even though one of McLeod’s first acts after he took office in January was to change Reynolds’ death certificate from suicide to undetermined – and then he announced he wanted to hold a coroner’s inquest – he put that on hold as the appeal works its way through the system.

It could be months before the Appeals Court rules, according to Ferguson.

And yesterday, the justices questioned how any decisions they might make could apply to the new coroner, as he is not named in the case.

“My question is, is anything we do going to have any meaning at all?” Judge David Armstrong said during the proceedings.

Judge Joel Penoyar encouraged both sides to agree to substitute McLeod’s name for Wilson’s in the appeal.

McLeod spoke afterward, saying he has to consult with his attorney before deciding what he may or may not do but the way he sees it, he inherited the case.

Ideally, he still wants a coroner’s inquest, McLeod said. And he’s starting to question his inclination to hold it in another county, and to entirely turn the proceedings over to an outside coroner, he added.

It needs to be resolved, it’s gone on too long, McLeod said.

“I want to see the truth come out, I want to see this case resolved finally,” he said. ” For Barb, for the citizens of Lewis County.”
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Watch KOMOtv.com’s video from the Appeals Court here

Lewis County Coroner Warren McLeod listens to Ronda Reynolds' mother after the hearing in the state Court of Appeals in Tacoma.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Attorneys yesterday confirmed they are ready for trial next week in the case of the Onalaska man who allegedly shot at two suspected burglars outside his house last year, killing one of them.

Ronald A. Brady, 60, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of 56-year-old Thomas McKenzie of Morton and first-degree assault for allegedly opening fire on McKenzie’s estranged wife Joanna McKenzie as she fled.

Ronald A. Brady

Brady has pleaded not guilty.

The trial in Lewis County Superior Court is expected to last about five days.

Deputy Prosecutor Colin Hayes however indicated to the judge yesterday there were still last minute negotiations going on, which may or may not lead to a plea agreement and no trial.

Hayes is handling the case with Deputy Prosecutor Shane O’Rourke. Centralia defense attorney Don Blair represents Brady.

The lawyers met with Judge James Lawler yesterday afternoon to sort out the ground rules for trial, including how much and how to characterize Joanna McKenzie’s presence at the property that night.

She has made a so-called Alford plea, not admitting guilt, to attempted burglary.

According to charging documents: On April 19, Brady reported somebody had broken into his house he had been renovating on the 2100 block of state Route 508, moving items stored in his garage. He saw a back window had been broken and found the garage door opened about two inches.

Brady returned to his nearby rental home where he lived, collected his .22 caliber rifle and 12-gauge shotgun and then went back to his unoccupied house on state Route 508. He told sheriff’s detectives he was staying there in case the burglars returned

He described to deputies hearing noises, opening his garage door and finding two flashlights shined in his face; then he opened fire.

Thomas McKenzie died from a gunshot wound to his chest and leaves behind nine children and other family members.

Lewis County Sheriff Steve Mansfield announced last summer he believed the shooting was justifiable and he wouldn’t arrest Brady.

In September, the Lewis County Prosecutors Office charged Brady with first-degree manslaughter for Thomas McKenzie’s death and two months later upgraded the charge to first-degree murder, “based on the facts of the case.”

Among the witnesses listed are, for the defense, private investigator Jerry Berry; and for the prosecution, Brady’s neighbor Jack Tipping,  Joanna McKenzie, a fire chief, a pathologist and several sheriff’s deputies.

Brady’s defense is general denial and self defense, according to documents filed in his case. He remains free on a $50,000 unsecured appearance bond

First-degree murder is a class A felony with a possible penalty of life in prison and a $50,000 fine. Its elements include intent and premeditation.

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Read background on the case, here