Lewis County Sirens.com

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The cause of the fatal house fire in Packwood just before Christmas is going to be undetermined.

Fire Investigator Derrick Paul said he has some suspicions and theories that fit, but without proof he can’t say for sure.

Michael J. Pierson, 56, lived alone there according to his family, Lewis County Fire District 10 Chief Lonnie Goble said.

Dec. 20, 2016

While the coroner has not yet confirmed the identity of the victim, the family has placed an obituary for the Packwood man.

Born in Morton Pierson was injured in a logging accident in his early 20s and unable to work again, according to the notice published by Cattermole Funeral Home. He leaves behind his mother, a brother, a sister, two children and two grandchildren, the obituary states.

The Lewis County Coroner’s Office has established he died from smoke inhalation.

The fire at the modular home behind the Chevron gas station along U.S. Highway 12 was reported about 5:20 a.m. on Dec. 20.

Chief Goble said when they arrived, only half the house was engulfed in flames as the fire had already moved from the other side. The roof had already collapsed, he said.

It turns out it had been burning as early as 3:15 a.m., based on footage from the gas station’s security system, Goble said. Around 4:15 a.m., a large explosion could be seen, which may have been a window blowing out, he said.

“How the neighbors didn’t hear that, I don’t know,” he said. “The fire could have started at 12 o’clock that night, no one really knows.”

Once the fire was extinguished, the man presumed to be Pierson was found dead inside.

Goble said Pierson walked with a cane whenever he’d see him in town, and had very poor vision. The family told Goble and Paul that Pierson sometimes smoked in bed and had mishaps with lit cigarettes.

“He’d put cigarettes out and it would be on the night stand instead of the ashtray,” Goble said.

An errant cigarette is one of the investigator’s theories as to the cause of the fire. Paul said the bed was in the front room and the fire started around the bed.

Paul was also fairly certain there was not a working smoke detector in the house. Some of the rooms were still intact and he didn’t find a smoke detector, he said.

“Whether it would have saved his life, we don’t know,” Paul said.  “But I have never had a fire fatality with a working smoke detector in 20 years.”

Paul said once the coroner verifies the victim’s identity, he can finalize his fire report. And the official cause will be undetermined.
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For background, read “One dead in Packwood house fire” from Tuesday December 20, 2016, here

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The Washington State Supreme Court issued an opinion yesterday disqualifying a local judge from presiding over a resentencing that has twice been ordered in a drive-by shooting committed by a former Centralia High School student at age 16.

Guadalupe Solis-Diaz Jr. is serving a nearly 93 year sentence imposed by Lewis County Superior Court Judge Nelson Hunt.

Guadalupe Solis-Diaz Jr.

In 2012, the Washington State Court of Appeals ordered the local court to conduct a new hearing, referencing various matters that it believed should have been handled more thoroughly, given the defendant was a juvenile. In 2014, Judge Hunt held the hearing, criticizing the appeals court decision calling some of their conclusions insulting and ludicrous.

He sentenced Solis-Diaz for the second time to 1,111 months in prison.

The case grew out of an incident in the summer of 2007.

Solis-Diaz Jr. was arrested after gunfire was sprayed along the east side of South Tower Avenue in Centralia, missing six bar patrons. Witnesses testified it was gang-related. Solis-Diaz maintained he was innocent.

Judge Nelson Hunt

He was tried as an adult and convicted of multiple offenses, including one count of first-degree assault committed with a firearm for each bullet that was fired.

The six assault counts were ordered to be served consecutively and each carried a mandatory extra five years because they were committed with a firearm.

Judge Hunt was asked to consider an exceptional sentence downward, but Hunt maintained several reasons why he should not do that.

This past spring, a different three-member panel of the appeals court stated the sentencing court must conduct a meaningful, individualized inquiry into whether Solis-Diaz’s youth should mitigate his sentence. That hearing has yet to be held.

However, they declined to disqualify the sentencing judge and Solis-Diaz went to the Supreme Court about that.

In its opinion issued yesterday the state Supreme Court stated the law requires more than an impartial judge, it requires the judge to also appear to be impartial.

Hunt would be asked to exercise discretion of the propriety of a sentence he has already imposed and, “the record reflects that he not only has strong opinions on sentencing generally and juvenile sentencing in particular, but also suggests he has already reached a firm conclusion about the propriety of a mitigated sentence in this case and may not be amenable to considering mitigating evidence with an open mind,” the court wrote.

Judge Hunt retired last Friday after 12 years on the bench.

The opinion was issued by the court as a whole without a named author.
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For background, read “Former Centralia high school student wins a second appeal of virtual life sentence” from Tuesday May 17, 2016, here

Read the Washington State Supreme Court decision here