Lewis County Sirens.com

Reginald L. Juntunen, right, consults with his new lawyer about waiving the attorney, client privilege regarding his former lawyer who took the witness stand.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The Winlock man imprisoned for 25 years to life following a plea deal regarding the sexual assault of a child at a Mossyrock campground was denied his motion to withdraw his guilty plea.

Reginald L. Juntunen was 19 years old when the 8-year-old girl was attacked in a restroom, but wasn’t arrested until five years later in July 2012 after he was identified as a suspect through DNA.

Three and a half months later, without a fair opportunity to make an informed decision because of ineffective counsel, his lawyer says, he pleaded guilty to a 25 year minimum sentence. He was convicted of first-degree child molestation.

Juntunen, now 25, was back in Lewis County Superior Court on Friday, as was his new attorney Mitch Harrison and the court-appointed defense attorney who first represented him in the case, Chris Baum.

Joely O’Rourke, who prosecuted him, argued on Friday against the request.

Harrison told the judge a key issue was his client’s agreement to stipulate to the aggravating factor the offense was predatory, which added at least 15 years of incarceration. Harrison argued O’Rourke and Baum believed the factor was mandatory, without the benefit of a Supreme Court decision which said it was not.

Baum neglected to do any of the typical investigation for a case involving such a lengthy punishment, and he didn’t challenge the aggravator, Harrison said.

“The process in getting to the plea is more important than the plea itself,” Harrison said.

Among other failures the Seattle-based lawyer contended in his written motion, Baum presented no mitigating evidence to persuade O’Rourke to make a better offer.

When it was O’Rourke’s turn to make her arguments to Judge Richard Brosey, she told him she used her discretion in charging the aggravator because she felt the case called for it. And then she called Baum as her witness.

Baum explained he spoke to O’Rourke repeatedly trying to get her to drop the aggravator.

He testified he found the victim to be a compelling witness he was concerned a jury would easily believe.

His choices were limited in the way he proceeded, because his client in the very beginning told him he’d done it, he said.

“I thought there was a high likelihood he would be convicted, and I couldn’t find a decent defense,” Baum said.

After the hour and three quarters hearing, Judge Brosey denied the motion.

Juntunen’s lawyer plans to appeal the denial.
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For background, read “Winlock High School grad gets 25 plus years for molestation” from Wednesday December 12, 2012, here

Joseph R. Wharton, last weekend at Plummers Lake, Centralia.

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CENTRALIA – The man shot and killed by a Centralia police officer yesterday relocated last fall from Arizona to Westport to live near his mother but in recent weeks had reunited with a former longterm girlfriend who resides in Centralia.

Joseph R. Wharton, 48, died from multiple gunshot wounds after a short foot pursuit when a patrol officer attempted to contact him outside a closed coffee shop on Mellen Street about 2:20 a.m. yesterday.

Police say Wharton was trying to scale a fence in a residential neighborhood when Officer Phil Weismiller caught up to him, that he confronted Weismiller and refused to drop a knife he had in his hand.

Lewis County Coroner Warren McLeod said an autopsy today concluded Wharton died from multiple penetrating wounds – meaning the projectiles didn’t leave his body – to his chest and abdomen.

Elm Street, Centralia

McLeod would not reveal how many gunshot wounds he found.

Weismiller, a city police officer for about five and half years, was put on administrative leave while the matter is investigated.

The manner of death is listed as a homicide, the killing of one human being by another, according to McLeod. Whether it was justified is up to others to determine, he said.

Thirty-nine-year-old Sandra Ziady said she doesn’t know what her fiancee was up to to, or why he would have displayed a knife to a police officer.

“I have no idea, I wish I could find out,” Ziady said today. “It makes me really sad because everything we wanted is finally coming true; now its not.”

Ziady said the two met when they lived in Oakville some 20 years ago and have been together off and on ever since.

Wharton finished an approximately six-year stint in prison in New Mexico about two years ago, and then lived in Arizona to be near his three children who are in their early 20s, she said.

“He’s an amazing person,” she said. “He got in trouble and did his time, but was an amazing father and grandfather.”

She said his incarceration was related to a drug-induced psychosis.

He resides with his sister in Westport, but in recent weeks, he began staying with her in Centralia, Ziady said. She’s been living at the Lakeview Inn for the past two months, near her job at a convenience store on Mellen Street, she said.

Ziady’s shift ended at 11:30 p.m. on Wednesday, and he had texted her earlier and told her not to eat dinner, she said.

When she got home, the door was propped open and he’d lit candles and ordered Chinese food, she said. And he proposed to her, asking her to be his “forever”, she said.

However, he left about 1 a.m., she said.

“He said he had stuff to take care of, I asked what, he wouldn’t tell me,” Ziady said.

The location where he died on Elm Street less than two hours later is less than three blocks from there.

Ziady has talked with police and learned his car was found parked at an apartment complex a few blocks north of the motel. She wonders if he decided to walk home instead of drive, as he’d drank a couple of beers and little whiskey, she said.

She said she watched a video with police that showed Wharton behind the Fiddlers coffee shop, that he wasn’t doing anything, just walking around.

It surprised her, she said, that police claimed her fiance told the officer who first encountered him that he had a gun. He doesn’t own a firearm, she said.

Why he would, as police say, display a knife she could only speculate.

“I have no idea, he has had bad run ins with cops,” she said. “He might have been scared; he only has one eye.”

A team of detectives from surrounding police agencies are expected to complete their investigation into the incident within the next three weeks.
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For background, read “Police involved shooting leaves one man dead in Centralia” from Thursday February 13, 2014, here

Centralia police say Officer Phil Weismiller caught up to the subject who was attempting to scale a fence on Elm Street.

Updated at 9:22 p.m.

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CENTRALIA – A Centralia police officer shot and killed a man last night in a residential neighborhood after a confrontation that began when another officer attempted to contact the individual spotted behind a closed business.

It happened around 2:20 a.m. in an area just east of the Interstate 5 interchange at Mellen Street.

Police say the subject had displayed a knife and said he had a gun during the first encounter and had a knife in his hand during a subsequent encounter about a block away.

The deceased is 48 years old carrying an identification card, from Arizona, according to the Centralia Police Department. His name was not released.

Officers remained on the scene this morning conducting an investigation, along with the Washington State Patrol, at the 1200 block of Elm Street where it ended, according to a police spokesperson.

Police spokesperson Officer Patricia Finch said as she understood, an officer was on routine patrol and observed a suspicious person behind Fiddler’s Coffee on Mellen Street. Officers keep an eye out for potential burglars, she said. Officer Tracy Murphy tried to contact the male, who ignored Murphy and walked away, according to Finch.

Murphy in his patrol car followed him across the street to near the shuttered former King Solomon’s Restaurant building, according to police. Police say that’s where the male showed Murphy the knife, said he had a firearm, and then refused to drop the knife.

According to Finch, the male ran and was pursued on foot by the arriving second officer.

Officer Phil Weismiller met up with the male 100 to 200 yards away.

“(T)he male stopped and confronted the officer, holding a knife in his hand,” police stated in a morning news release. “At one point during the confrontation, the male was shot by the officer.”

The whole event happened within a matter of moments, Finch said.

Medics responded but the man was dead at the scene.

The commotion was frightening for residents of the short dead-end street.

Twenty-year-old Kassie Kohler said she and her mother were asleep on couches in their living room when her teenage brother alerted them he heard gunshots outside his window, she said.

“He Army-crawled from his room to the living room yelling, get down, get down,” she said.

When they finally got the nerve to look out a window, Kohler said she saw a patrol car parked on the lawn between their house and the neighbor to the west, headlights pointed toward the back corner of where the house met with a back fence.

It wasn’t 10 minutes, she said, before there were a dozen police and aid vehicles lining the street.

Police Chief Bob Berg offered more details as the day wore on.

Weismiller arrived in his patrol vehicle to assist Murphy and exited at the northeast corner of the restaurant property where access to Elm Street is barricaded. Murphy drove around to the intersection of Elm and Marsh Avenue to block that route, according to Berg.

Weismiller chased the subject and caught up with him in between two houses where he was unsuccessfully attempting to scale a fence, Berg wrote.

“At that point the subject, still armed with a knife, confronted Officer Weismiller and after refusing commands to drop the knife, the subject was shot,” Berg wrote.

The chief didn’t note how many rounds were fired. No details describing the knife were released.

Kohler said she counted 13 yellow numbered markers on the ground as law enforcement officers examined the scene.

Finch said she didn’t know if the deceased was just passing through town or had relocated here. Police would not reveal his identity until after his family is notified, she said.

Weismiller has been placed on administrative leave as is standard procedure, according to police. Weismiller, 34, has been with the department for a year and a half, coming from the Kelso Police Department where he worked about four years.

He is a former captain in the U.S. Army who has served tours in the Middle East, police said.

Murphy is a 17-year veteran of the department.

The Centralia Police Department requested assistance from what is known as the Region Three Critical Incident Investigation Team, a group of officers from surrounding agencies who look into such incidents.

A records check shows the deceased has arrest and conviction data in Washington, Oregon, Arizona and New Mexico, according to police.

Lewis County Coroner Warren McLeod said the man’s next-of-kin have been notified, but he won’t release the name until his identity is confirmed tomorrow through finger prints.

The team of detectives from the Thurston, Lewis, Pacific, Grays Harbor, and Mason County sheriffs’ offices are expected to complete their work within the next three weeks, according to Berg.

Their findings will go to the Lewis County prosecutor to review the actions of Weismiller for a decision regarding any criminal charges. Once that side of the matter is resolved, an internal use of force review board will convene in accordance with Centralia Police Department policy, according to the chief.

A team consisting of detectives from the Thurston, Lewis, Pacific, Grays Harbor, and Mason County Sheriffs’ Offices conducting the investigation into the officer-involved shooting on Elm Street is expected to complete its work within the next three weeks.

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The other side of the fence at the house on Elm Street.