Lewis County Sirens.com

Jessica Porter testifies about her brother D.J. and father David West Sr. during during their murder trial. / Courtesy photo by Bradd Reynolds

This was updated at 8:21 a.m. on Tuesday December 13, 2011

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The prosecution painted with broad strokes a picture of John A. Booth Jr. working as a “collector” of money for Robbie Russell in the local drug world.

Testimony in today’s proceedings in Booth’s triple murder trial in Chehalis included some who described Booth as a quiet, but large, guy who accompanied Robbie Russell when Russell was shaking people down for cash, although one older gentleman who took the witness stand said the former Onalaskan came across as a “nice kid” and a bragger.

Booth, 32, is charged with attempted extortion as well as murder, attempted murder and unlawful possession of a firearm in connection with the August 21, 2010 fatal shootings in the Salkum-Onalaska area.

The Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office argued in opening statements the deaths involved getting rid of witnesses after gunfire erupted when David West Sr. brought out a shotgun to chase off Booth and his former cell mate Ryan McCarthy who had showed up at his home to “tax” him.

When it was over, West Sr.’s unfired shotgun lay beside his body, and 16-year-old David West Jr. and a friend Tony Williams were dead as well. West Sr.’s longtime girlfriend Denise Salts survived a gunshot.

Booth’s trial in Lewis County Superior Court is in its second week.

Russell, 48, has never been charged in the case.

Last December, when Russell was sent to prison for six years for unrelated crimes, Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecutor Brad Meagher said Russell was still a “person of interest” and they’d looked into links, but he didn’t have any evidence Russell was involved in the slayings.

Raymond Haskins, who lives in Yelm, testified today that in February 2010, Russell brought Booth with him when he came to talk to him about $2,100 Haskins owed Russell for the purchase of some methamphetamine.

Were you intimidated? Deputy Prosecutor Meagher asked.

“He introduced himself, we shook hands,” Haskins said. “He’s a pretty big guy. Anything I would have thought after that would be an assumption.”

Haskins spoke of a later debt to Russell of $20,000 and a visit to his house by Booth on August 10, 2010, he said was brokered by McCarthy.

Haskins said he invited them, as he figured Booth, who he referred to as “Six”, would most likely being trying to collect.

He was more concerned about Booth coming over than Russell, he said, because “he’s … uh, a bigger guy.”

Russell had been arrested in April for possession of stolen property – belonging to Haskin’s father – and Russell blamed  him for his arrest, Haskins testified.

“Robbie had determined I was responsible for his bail, and other charges I would owe,” Haskins said.

Haskins testified he wanted to give his side of the story to Booth, who would relay it to Russell.

The agreement, arranged ahead of of the visit, was, on that day, “no action would be taken,” he said.

However, during that visit, no threats were made, Haskins agreed when queried by Booth’s lawyer.

Another witness who took the stand today spoke of a time that summer when Booth approached him telling him “basically my son owed him money and said I could pay it if I wanted.”

Linn Perry relayed that Booth bragged about why he had the nickname “Six”, saying he’d been shot six times and  once shot a guy for $5.

Perry said he didn’t take it as a real threat, although he showed Booth his knife and threatened him to stay away from his son.

“He seemed like a nice kid and everybody always has a rough front to them,” Perry said. “That’s all I really thought.”

Deputy Prosecutor Meagher also called a witness who said she hung out with McCarthy and Booth in Onalaska about a week before the shootings.

They met while traveling down Interstate 5 from Olympia, conversing through open car windows on a hot summer day, La Shawna Wolfe said.

Wolfe, 32, said she is from Onalaska.

Wolfe got in their car and they stopped at Brenda’s Market and then spent some time at the All-in Tavern in Onalaska, she testified.

They said they had 9 to 5 jobs but were down her on their “other job,” Wolfe said.

“Did they say they were taxing people that evening?” Meagher asked.

“They were on business, yeah,” Wolfe said.

Wolfe testified she opened the glove box and saw a silver pistol.

The three of them drove to West Sr.’s home off Gore Road and she sat with McCarthy while Booth went inside, she said.

“They were talking about this gentleman owning a Harley and not all the debt being satisfied,” she said.

Another witness was Robert Downing, who said he’d known West Sr. for some 30 years.

Downing said he met with West Sr. at the Wings Way home on Aug. 20, 2010 at around 8:30 p.m.

He testified West Sr. needed money ‘really bad” and offered to sell for $1,000 a boat he’d purchased two months earlier for $6,500.

“I told him if he needed to do it, I’d go ahead and do it,” Downing said.

Downing said he left the house around 10:30 p.m. or 11 o’clock, some 15 minutes or so after John Lindberg arrived.

Twenty-three-year-old Jessica Porter was among the last of the witnesses to take the stand on Monday.

David “D.J.” West Jr. was her brother and West Sr. was her father.

Porter, her two young children and her boyfriend Shane Reynolds were visiting the Wings Way residence from their home in Klickitat County on August 8 of last year when Robbie Russell, Booth and McCarthy showed up at her dad’s house, she testified.

The family had just returned from boating; it was only the second day of the visit, she said.

Booth sat on the couch, asked DJ about her children, she said.

Reynolds testified as well. He said West Sr. and Russell went into the bedroom used as an office for about a half an hour.

Then Russell came out winked at Booth, and Booth jumped up and followed him out, he said.

When West Sr. emerged, he was scared, Reynolds said.

“I asked, ‘what’s up’?” Reynolds testified.

West Sr. said he’d given Russell $1,000, he said.

Deputy Prosecutor Meagher asked Porter how her father appeared.

“He just told us we needed to go home, he wanted us to go right then,” Porter said.

Booth is represented by Port Orchard attorney Roger Hunko. Testimony is scheduled to resume at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday.

John A. Booth Jr. in Lewis County Superior Court / Courtesy photo by Bradd Reynolds

Denise R. Salts answers questions from Lewis County Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecutor Brad Meagher.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Denise R. Salts was tentative with many of her answers on the witness stand today, but more certain on a three points.

Salts, 52, said she recalled hearing only one gunshot that night while she was outside watering her tomato plants.

She said she went in through her back door and saw Ryan McCarthy at the dining room table, her longtime boyfriend David West Sr. sitting on the floor and John A. Booth standing facing the living room with his arms crossed.

“I didn’t see him have a gun in his hand, but he is the one who shot me,” Salts said identifying Booth as the man sitting at the at the defense table.

Salts was the lone survivor when she and three others were shot at her Wings Way home near Salkum in August 2010.

The first week of Booth’s triple-murder trial in Lewis County Superior Court came to a close with a little more than an hour of her testimony.

Salts spent about 19 days at Madigan Hospital with a life-threatening gunshot wound through her face, according to the doctor who treated her.

It was a small entry wound to the right of her nose, but the bullet fractured her jaw and other bones before exiting behind her left ear, according to Dr. Brian Chen.

As Salts was transported to the hospital on Aug. 21, 2010, her 52-year-old boyfriend, his 16-year-old son and a 50-year-old friend lay fatally wounded in her house, which was transformed into an active crime scene.

“She’s undoubtedly the strongest woman I’ve ever known,” her friend Pam Ferry said during an afternoon break in court proceedings. “And the fragile-ist at the same time.”

Ferry said she was referring to Salts’ strength to face Booth in court.

Ferry noted how much her friend’s life had changed.

“She gets frustrated, because she can’t remember things,” she said.

Salts said she lives in Randle now. She had lived at the Salkum-Onalaska area home less than a year when the homicides took place, she said.

That day, she said under questioning by Lewis County Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecutor Brad Meagher, she had gone to town and returned around 10 p.m.

Her friend John Lindberg showed up about a half hour later, she said. Tony Williams, 50, had come over around 7 p.m., she said.

She didn’t know Booth and McCarthy, except they had come to the house once before about two weeks earlier with Robbie Russell, she said.

She thought about five minutes elapsed from the time she went inside and before she was shot, she said.

“I see Dave, Dave was sitting down on the floor,” Salts said. “I knew something was wrong.”

She recalled Booth coming towards the back door and saying to her ‘are you gonna call the cops?’ she said.

She said she asked him to leave.

Under questioning by defense attorney Roger Hunko, Salts said she was near the refrigerator and Booth pushed her.

“I was coming through the door, I was right by the fridge, his arms were like this” she said crossing her arms, “And I got shot.”

When asked how close Booth was to her, she held her hands about two and half feet apart.

Salts testified that after Booth and McCarthy left, her boyfriend was alive. She lay on the floor for what felt like hours, she said.

“I tried to, I tried to move myself over to Dave,” she said. “I was too weak to go far.”

Yes, she had previously said she thought she had seen McCarthy with a gun, she said. And she told a deputy she thought he had a machete also, she testified.

Did she remember telling detective Bruce Kimsey she had been outside taking care of her goats and horses? Hunko asked her.

“I was not taking care of my goats and horses, I was watering my tomato plants,” Salts said. “The horses were chores the kids did.”

Do you recall when you talked with Kimsey, you said Booth said “how ya doing?” and then you got shot? Hunko asked her.

“I guess,” Salts said.

Do you recall how many shots you heard from outside? she was asked.

“One,” Salts replied.

Her friend Lindberg has previously testified that that night, West Sr. asked him if he had any money on him, money Lindberg was certain West Sr. was going to hand over to Booth.

Lindberg described he was two steps behind West Sr. after West Sr. grabbed a shotgun from his bedroom, walked down the hallway, cocked it, and aimed toward the dining room table, trying to get Booth and McCarthy to leave.

That’s when the shooting began and Lindberg fled to a back bedroom, which he later escaped from after the shooting ended, according to Lindberg.

Booth, 32, is charged with the attempted murder of Salts, second-degree murder of West Sr., first-degree murder of David “D.J. West Jr. and first-degree murder of Williams.

He is also charged with attempted extortion. Prosecutors allege he and McCarthy were “taxing” West and others on behalf of Robbie Russell.

McCarthy, 30, has been sent to prison for 14 years after a plea agreement, where he did not admit guilt.

Russell, early on named a person-of-interest in the triple homicide, was not charged in the case, but was sent to prison following unrelated convictions.

Testimony is scheduled to resume on Monday morning.

Also on the witness stand today were:

• Jennifer Dahlberg, a forensic scientist, who said she found DNA on a gun she was asked to test that came back positive for Booth.

• Shawna Trent Booth who was asked to identify a cell phone as her husband’s but said she couldn’t.

• Gregory Sage, who said he knows Booth as “Big Six” from working out at a gym testified that Booth phoned him in August 2010 and; “He said a guy pulled a shotgun on me and I had to drop him.”

Diagram of crime scene at 101 Wings Way, in the Salkum-Onalaska area

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Those in the courtroom began to get more clues yesterday about what happened inside the Wings Way house when they heard testimony about where bullet holes, shell casings, three dead males and other items of evidence were found the morning of Aug. 21, 2010.

A 9 mm cartridge case lay on the living room floor and bullet fragments were discovered in various places, including a bedroom, another bedroom described as an office and on the living room floor.

The triple-murder trial of John A. Booth Jr. continued in Lewis County Superior Court with witnesses that included a forensic scientist and the doctor who conducted the autopsies.

Booth, 32, is charged with the fatal shootings in the Salkum-area home of David West Sr. 52, West’s 16-year-old son David West Jr. and a friend Tony E. Williams, 50, of Randle. He is also charged with attempted murder of West Sr.’s girlfriend, Denise Salts, then 51 years old.

Blood was found beneath the heads of each of the three who died, as well as on a coffee table, multiple places on the living room floor, a curio cabinet in the hallway and near door jambs of two bedrooms, according to forensic scientist Brianna Peterson’s testimony on Thursday. Peterson, who works for Washington State Patrol, helped collect evidence from the home.

The body of Tony Williams, 50, was found laying across the narrow hallway in between two bedrooms, Peterson said. He died of a gunshot into his right eye, inflicted at a fairly close range, according to Dr. Emmanuel Lacsina who also took the witness stand.

Lacsina said he conducted all three autopsies on Aug. 23, 2010.

David West Sr., 52, was mortally wounded by a gunshot in his head, but also sustained two “distant” gunshots; one in his abdomen and another in his left thigh, Lacsina said.

His body was found laying in roughly the same location in the living room where the day before, a witness had described he stood as he cocked his 12-gauge shotgun, according to testimony. The gun, with the hammer still cocked, lay on the floor beside him, Peterson said.

Photographs of the crime scene and diagrams were displayed on a large screen, as the witnesses shared information with the jurors.

Family members of one of the victims were present, but left the courtroom as photos of West Jr. were presented inside what has been described as a double-wide modular home.

West Jr.’s body was shown laying wedged in between the end of the couch and a coffee table close to the front door.

He was shot through the left cheek, but a second wound – which was fatal – was a “close range” gunshot to his head that exited under his right ear and was found lodged in his right arm, according to Dr. Lacsina.

Found in the small east bedroom, was a bloody sock and a cartridge case on the floor, as well as a bullet hole on the wall above the bed, according to Peterson.

Among the bullets recovered was one that penetrated the east dining room wall, Peterson testified.

Two metal fragments were found in the other bedroom – used as a computer room, as well as blood on the wall near its door, according to Peterson.

Peterson resumed her testimony this morning, when she spoke of what was found in the kitchen area, where Salts had been found alive in a pool of blood.

John A. Booth Jr. listens to testimony in Lewis County Superior Court.

This news story was updated at 1:20 p.m.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – John Lindberg told jurors he was two steps behind David West Sr. after West Sr. grabbed a shotgun from his bedroom, walked down the hallway, cocked it, and aimed toward the dining room table, trying to get John A. Booth and Ryan J. McCarthy to leave his house on Wings Way.

That’s when the shooting began, Lindberg said.

“The gunfire, it wasn’t from the shotgun, it was rapid fire,” he said.

As West Sr. began to topple, Lindberg ran back to the master bedroom, he said.

John Lindberg

Now, Lindberg, a plumber, is one of only two individuals alive – other than the accused pair – who were inside the home that night where four people were subsequently found shot, according to the Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office.

Denise Salts, then 51, survived a gunshot in her face and is expected to testify today in Booth’s triple murder trial.

It was about 2 a.m. on Aug. 21 of last year when deputies were called to the rambler in the Salkum-Onalaska area. Inside, 52-year-old West Sr, his 16-year-old son David West Jr. and a friend Tony E. Williams, 50, of Randle were dead. Salts lay bleeding on the kitchen floor.

McCarthy, 30, has been sent to prison for 14 years after a plea agreement, where he did not admit guilt. Booth, 32, is charged with first-degree murder, second-degree murder, attempted murder and other offenses. His trial began Monday and is expected to go through next week.

Under questioning by attorneys yesterday in Lewis County Superior Court, Lindberg told what he heard, saw and recalled from that night. At times, his voice broke as he described fearing he would be killed, and how he hid out until only he and the victims remained in the house.

Lindberg had arrived about 12:30 a.m. to visit, and was followed into the West’s home by Booth and McCarthy, two people he said he had never met before.

They conversed at a dining room table as West Sr. spoke of getting a title to a truck for Booth. Lindberg said.

Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecutor Brad Meagher questioned Lindberg at length.

Booth asked West Sr. if they could talk outside, and then they stepped out for 15 to 20 minutes, Lindberg said.

Salts was in the living room with someone else, he said.

When West Sr. came back inside, he asked Lindberg if he had any money, Lindberg relayed. He told him he only had $100, but followed him to the master bedroom, and told him he had more on him, but didn’t want to say so in front of Booth, Lindberg testified.

“His face was red, beet red, he looked pretty stressed out,” Lindberg said of West Sr.

That’s when West Sr. picked up the gun and  said “”F*** it, I’m going to end this bullshit once and for all,” Lindberg said.

Lindberg said under questioning when West Sr. started to fall, he fled to the back bedroom where he paced back and forth. He had seen McCarthy at the dining room table, but couldn’t see Booth, he said.

From the bedroom, he said, he heard Salts, but not what she was saying, and heard something hit the floor.

“I heard Tony’s voice,” he said. “Don’t, don’t, you don’t have to shoot, Lindberg relayed.”

Then a sound like a gun was jammed, or being reloaded, he said, and then another “bang”.

“Did you stay where you were at?” Deputy Prosecutor Meagher asked.

“Yeah,” Lindberg said, covering part of his face with one hand and stifling a sob.

“I thought I was gonna die next,” he said.

Lindberg said he heard footsteps coming down hall, and he froze, but then he took a look out the doorway.

“I could see McCarthy going in this room, next the boy is here, Booth was there,” he said. “Booth had the boy by the hair.”

Lindberg said he was an arms-length away from West Sr. and when the men’s backs were turned, he darted behind them into the master bathroom.

As he was closing the door, he said, “I hear a bang, another gunshot, then I hear the boy hit the floor.”

It was dark and he felt around but could not find a window, he said. All he could hear was the fan, he said. There were no more shots, he said.

“Boy, it seemed like forever, 20, 30 minutes,” Lindberg said. “I started praying … cause I didn’t want to die.”

Finally, he looked out and could see the front door was open, he said.

“I had to control myself to jump over Dave’s body, the shotgun,” he said. “I ran.”

Lindberg said he went to the gate and looked around for the men, and noticed their car was gone. He got in his car and drove away fast, he said.

Lindberg headed east on Gore Road and saw a car pass him coming the other way, he said. He kept going, he thought they were returning to kill him, he said.

Then Lindberg, who carries a police scanner in his car, heard his license plate on the scanner and stopped, he said.

Lewis County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Matt Wallace arrived and asked if he was alright. He said no.

Wallace testified Lindberg was shaking and crying, almost unable to control his hands.

“He told me what happened,” Wallace said.

Witnesses continue to testify today in the Chehalis courtroom, including the forensic pathologist who conducted the autopsies.

The trial is expected to run through next week.