John A. Booth Jr. testifies at his motion hearing before Lewis County Superior Court Judge Richard Brosey.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – Convicted triple murderer John A. Booth Jr.’s motion to vacate his judgement and sentence because of alleged eavesdropping by employees of the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office before and during his trial has been denied.
Lewis County Superior Court Judge Richard Brosey concluded that anything overheard was inadvertent and said he found no evidence it was passed along to prosecutors or used against him.
“The long and the short of it, Mr. Booth was not denied due process,” Brosey said yesterday afternoon.
Booth is serving a life sentence for the August 2010 slayings at the Onalaska-Salkum area home of 52-year-old David West Sr., from whom prosecutors contended Booth was seeking payment of a debt for a local drug dealer.
According to testimony and evidence from the eight-day trial in Lewis County Superior Court, when West brought out a shotgun to get Booth and his companion to leave, Booth shot West with a 9 mm handgun. Prosecutors said the shootings that followed were executions to eliminate witnesses. Booth continues to deny he was the shooter.
Losing their lives that day, along with West Sr., were 16-year-old David “D.J.” West Jr. and 50-year-old Tony Williams of Randle. West Sr.’s girlfriend, Denise Salts, was shot in the face but lived.
The former Onalaska man has already lost an appeal and a personal restraint petition. The motion Judge Brosey ruled on yesterday was based on court rule 7.8.
Brosey was the judge for the December 2011 trial in Lewis County Superior Court.
His finding came after three days of hearings and testimony from 27 individuals who took the witness stand. The first two days of hearings were held on May 2 and May 3. The final day was yesterday, for the witnesses who were unavailable earlier.
The complaint that occupied much of the proceedings was corrections officers standing outside the jail’s row of visiting rooms while Booth consulted with his attorneys and their investigators. Several testified conversations of others could be heard, including former inmates Robert J. Maddaus Jr., Robbie Russell, Centralia attorney Don Blair and corrections officers.
Vernon West Jr. was a transport officer during Booth’s trial.
He said initially they would have two officers stand outside the door while Booth met with his lawyer, and while he was never instructed to listen in, he could hear the conversations.
He said he didn’t repeat what he heard, but after hearing too much, moved farther down the hall during future visits.
“We never stood that close to the door again,” West said.
Another aspect of what Booth called “ear hustling” in the motion he typed from the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla, was a corrections officer who admitted he heard a recorded phone conversations Booth had with his lawyer.
Now retired Corrections Officer Jack Haskins testified that his primary job for his last eight years was to listen to the recordings made of inmate phone calls. While calls with lawyers were not supposed to be recorded, as part of an automated system, he said he found himself listening once to Booth and his lawyer.
He said he stopped listening to it, looked up the phone number and verified it belonged to an attorney.
Aberdeen attorney Erik Kupka represented Booth, and for closing arguments yesterday afternoon, advised the court he was reading from material prepared by his client.
Lewis County Chief Criminal Deputy Brad Meagher argued for the state.
After Judge Brosey announced his conclusion, he was informed Booth would be appealing the decision.
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For background, read “Ear hustling”: Convicted murderer John Booth tells judge about problems at Lewis County Jail”, from Friday July 5, 2013, here
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