Lewis County Sirens.com

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Guadalupe Solis-Diaz Jr. was back in a Lewis County courtroom today as lawyers begin the process to address a court order to resentence the former Centralia High School student.

Five years ago, Solis-Diaz was given nearly 93 years in prison for a crime he committed when he was 16 years old.

He was arrested in August 2007 after gunfire was sprayed along the east side of South Tower Avenue in Centralia, missing six bar patrons. Witnesses testified it was gang-related.

A sentencing hearing was set for May 17 in front of Judge Nelson Hunt, who presided over his trial and sentenced him the first time.

Lewis County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Sara Beigh said today she will be writing a brief to the court to address how long the new sentence should be and why.

Her boss, elected Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer, said they don’t know yet exactly what they will recommend.

Defense attorney Robert Quillian said he will be doing the same, and has much work to do, studying the case and the legal issues involved.

The appeals court referenced some matters that could have been handled differently, Quillian said.

Quillian indicated to the judge he will ask for an investigator.

Among the shortcomings identified by the Washington State Court of Appeals in its September decision, was the lack in 2007 of a pre-sentencing report which could have shed light upon issues related to the teen’s mental and emotional sophistication.

Solis-Diaz challenged his virtual life sentence in light of a 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decision that held a sentence of life without parole is forbidden for a juvenile who did not commit homicide.

He has been incarcerated at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla-Walla. His attorney requested today he remain in the Lewis County Jail for closer access for meetings.

Today, in the Chehalis courtroom, were Solis-Diaz’s mother Elizabeth Dan, and nearly 20 apparent supporters.

Dan was reluctant to speak about the case.

“I just don’t want to read anything bad about my son,” Dan said. “I tried to raise my son the best way I know how. And that’s it.”

Chehalis defense attorney Chris Baum was a deputy prosecutor in 2007. He handled the case.

“This is a tough situation and I’m not sure where it’s going to go,” Baum said this afternoon. “I’m very curious.”

The 2007 sentence was driven by statute, Baum said.

First, although Solis-Diaz was only 16, he was treated as an adult in adult court, Baum said. The multiple convictions for first-degree assault had to be served consecutively.

“And no matter how you slice it, there’s 30 years on the firearms enhancements,” he said.

Baum suggested it needs to be dealt with by the legislature.

His prediction is the new sentence will also be very long, because of the statutory framework in place, and it will get appealed and a higher court will sort it out further.

“The judge has very little discretion,” Baum said. “The real authority is in the hands of the prosecutor. It’s the charging decision.”

Prosecutor Meyer said the Lewis County case is front and center right now among prosecutors around the state.

The Washington Association of Prosecuting Attorneys is putting together prosed legislation to deal with cases that amount to life without the possibility of parole for juveniles, Meyer said. They’re doing it because the Supreme Court has made it clear it has to be addressed, he said.

One idea would be something like a review after 30 years, according to Meyer.

Quillian, who is based in Olympia and been a lawyer since 1976, said sentences as long as his clients don’t occur very often at all.

He’s hardly seen any among his own cases, he said, if you don’t count murders and three-strike cases who are literally sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

“I can count them on one hand, I can tell you that,” he said.

•••

For background, read: “Appeals court gives Centralia teen a “do-over” on 90-plus-year drive-by shooting sentence” from Wednesday September 19, 2012, here

Keith and Lorrine Birdwell listen as their lawyer speaks for them in Lewis County Superior Court.

Updated

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The owners of Birdwell Brothers Auto Sales, accused of using deception to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars from a Centralia-based  bank, went before a judge today, following the filing of criminal charges.

Keith A. Birdwell, 47, and Lorrine D. Birdwell, 44, were accompanied by a lawyer who notified Lewis County Superior Court Judge James Lawler the couple had already worked out an agreement with the prosecutor that actual bail money wouldn’t be required.

“They are longtime members of the community,” attorney Daniel Garner said.

Lewis County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Will Halstead confirmed the couple could remain out of jail pending trial by each posting a $20,000 signature bond; a promise to appear for hearings.

Lawler approved the arrangement and ordered the Toledo couple to report to the jail to get their photos and fingerprints taken if not by 5 p.m., then tomorrow.

Garner said, outside the courtroom, he had no comment to make on behalf of his clients.

The Birdwells, who own a used car business with sites in Centralia and in Lacey, are each charged with one count of first-degree theft and five counts of felony unlawful issuance of a bank check.

The checks were allegedly written for several thousand dollars each over a period of three days this past July and returned for “not sufficient funds.”

The charges include special allegations the couple’s actions were major economic offenses with a high degree of sophistication.

The circumstances involve a form of a line of credit with Security State Bank, in which the unsold vehicles at the car lots were used as collateral for the loans, according to Centralia Police Department detective Sgt. Fitzgerald.

Charging documents describe how a bank employee conducting a check in July of the collateral could find only about 10 of the 55 vehicles which should have been on the car lots.

“The bank’s unrecovered losses on these ‘flooring’ loans was hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Eric Eisenberg wrote in charging documents.

The “bad” checks – a secondary issue – caused the Birdwell’s business account at Security State to go into the red by more than $160,000, according to Eisenberg.

The police investigation began in August after the bank contacted police about the situation. Detectives secured several search warrants to examine the couple’s bank accounts and their home in Toledo.

Charging documents suggest the bank discovered a potential problem in July, but the ensuing investigation found the alleged deception on the part of the Birdwells began around the previous October.

Eisenberg describes the loans this way: In order to finance the cars available for sale on their lots, Birdwells had a line of credit with their bank, allowing them to stock their dealership while maintaining capital to acquire new vehicles.

Security State would make a so-called flooring loan on each incoming vehicle and Birdwells promised – in their contract – to notify the bank and pay off each loan within 10 days of selling the vehicle.

Birdwells also agreed to notify the bank of any change in a car’s location.

The bank would periodically inspect the lots to check on the unsold vehicles and offer new loans on newly acquired cars, according to Eisenberg.

The police investigation found examples of alleged misrepresentations on Birdwells’ part, such as allegedly obtaining loans on three cars they did not own, and in other cases, allegedly failing to notify the bank a car had been sold.

In those cases, they either acquired or maintained their flooring loan for weeks or months after the sale, charging documents state.

When a bank employee would visit the dealerships, the employee was told the car was at the shop, at another dealership or being sold at an off-site sale, the court documents allege.

“Birdwells would also pass one car off as another, to suggest it was still on the lot, when in fact it had been sold,” Eisenberg writes.

It’s more than just not being able to pay back a loan, which would be a civil issue, according to police.

“There is a space in there where it’s ambiguous, but they crossed that threshold when they began deceptive practices to keep the bank from getting its money back,” detective Sgt. Fitzgerald said.

It came to a head in July, when a bank employee discovered 21 vehicles were unaccounted for, according to charging documents.

Keith Birdwell explained that away, but the following day got a phone call from the bank’s president asking about the discrepancies and asking why the bank was not receiving loan payments after car were sold, according to the documents.

The charging papers give the following account:

The two set a meeting for July 24, but it was rescheduled for July 26.

However, on July 24, the bank conducted an unannounced “flooring check” and that’s when only about 10 of the collateralized cars could be found.

Beginning that day, Keith Birdwell allegedly wrote several checks from their Twin Star Credit Union account to their Security State account. The first one was for $29,750, all but one of the others were larger.

However, the Twin Star account – which for months had a working balance of $25 to $105 – did not contain nearly enough money to cover the checks.

The Birdwell’s representative told police detective Rick Hughes that Keith Birdwell expected to cover the checks with a loan from an associate. The associate told detectives he had not promised a loan, but had only said it would be considered.

Criminal charges were filed on Jan. 8. The Birdwells were summonsed to appear in court today.

First-degree theft, without the aggravating circumstances tacked on, has a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and / or a $20,000 fine.

A court date was set for February 7 in which the Birdwells will appear before a judge again to make their pleas.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Powdered heroin. Blow dope.

The drug is showing up in a new form locally, reportedly found most often among young people.

Police have encountered a sudden spike of it in Lewis County, according to the Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office.

“Apparently you can blow on it, or add some moisture and then smoke it,” Deputy Prosecutor Shane O’Rourke said.

O’Rourke says it’s essentially powdered heroin, that clumps up when mixed with water.

“Law enforcement suspects it might be a new arrival, maybe easier to smuggle as powder,” he said.

O’Rourke said he saw his first case yesterday when he charged a 20-year-old man who was arrested Sunday in Winlock for allegedly selling it.

Matthew C. Gilmon was ordered held on $20,000 bail when he appeared briefly in Lewis County Superior Court. He is charged with two counts of delivery of heroin, an offense with a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

According to charging documents, Centralia police came across an individual early last month who was willing to work with them on undercover buys.

Once officers watched the “confidential informant” drive to the Subway next to Jack-in-the-box in Chehalis, where he or she parked, got into a maroon Volkswagen Jetta and emerged with $20 worth of the powder in a small tin foil bindle, according to charging documents.

Two weeks ago, the same informant approached the same suspect and purchased more, all while under police surveillance, charging documents allege. The price is not mentioned in the second transaction.

The brown powdered substance has an odor of vinegar, consistent with being heroin, according to the documents. The suspected narcotics field tested positive for heroin, the documents state.

Centralia Officers Lowrey and Haggarty on Sunday contacted Gilmon at his last known address, on Lane Drive in Winlock, according to O’Rourke.

Under questioning, Gilmon denied delivering heroin, but subsequently said he does help out friends who are “sick” by giving it to them, according to charging documents.

He was booked into the Lewis County Jail.

O’Rourke admits he doesn’t know much about the so-called blow dope, since it’s new.

The powder will be tested at a lab, he said.

“That’s what they’re calling it on the street, I guess we’re gonna be seeing that pop up,” he said yesterday.

Gilmon, whose address is listed as in Chehalis in his court file, is scheduled to be arraigned on Thursday.