Lewis County Sirens.com

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Five people were injured including a 75-year-old driver who crossed the centerline and four Lewis County residents in the other vehicle yesterday afternoon in Grays Harbor County.

Troopers were called just before 5 p.m. to the scene on state Route 101 about three miles north of Hoquiam, according to the Washington State Patrol. The highway was fully blocked for five hours.

Both drivers were airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle and both vehicles were totaled, according to the state patrol.

Christopher E. Lopez, 34, of Chehalis, was behind the wheel of a Dodge Dakota pickup headed southbound near milepost 91 when a northbound Dodge Durango crossed the centerline and they collided head on, the state patrol reports.

Lopez’s three passengers were transported by aid to Community Hospital, according to the investigating trooper. They are Seth M. Larsen, 24, of Morton; Clayton N. Larsen, 35, from Curtis; and Derek J. Watson, 30, Chehalis, according the state patrol.

The driver of the Dodge Durango, Eddie C. Valentine, 75, from Copalis Beach, was flown to Harborview.

The cause of the wreck is under investigation.

Maria I. Sevilla-Martinez meets with temporary defense attorney Kevin Nelson prior to her bail hearing in Lewis County Superior Court.

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A 17-year-old Centralia girl was arrested yesterday and charged in adult court today for her alleged involvement in an incident at a Centralia motel last week in which a man was robbed of his wallet, money and car after being struck over the head with a pistol.

The victim told police he had arranged via text messages to meet an ex-girlfriend at the motel on the 700 block of Harrison Avenue to have sex, but when he entered the room, he was immediately hit in the head by a male hiding behind the door, according to court documents.

In the room with his ex-girlfriend were two other females and a second male, according to the documents.

Maria I. Sevilla-Martinez, 17, was brought before a judge this afternoon in Lewis County Superior Court charged with first-degree robbery and theft of a motor vehicle.

Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Paul Masiello asked that she be held on $500,000 bail.

Temporary defense attorney Kevin Nelson asked for lesser bail, noting Sevilla-Martinez lives with her parents in Centralia, has a child and that the state had alleged no affirmative conduct on her part.

Judge Joely O’Rourke imposed $150,000 bail and determined Sevilla-Martinez would be housed at the Lewis County Jail, although separate from the adult population.

Masiello said after the hearing he was not aware of any of the other suspects yet being arrested.

Charging documents state that Centralia police were called on Wednesday to the motel, where they spoke with Jose Ramirez-Ruz, who was bleeding from his head.

Ramirez-Ruz told police he had been assaulted by the two males, both of whom were armed, according to charging documents. He said the males took his wallet and the keys to his vehicle and said if he left the room, people outside would shoot him, the documents relate.

All five of the individuals left, taking his Subaru, then he called police, Lewis County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Brad Meagher wrote in the affidavit regarding probable cause. Centralia police police last week described the stolen vehicle as a black 1995 Suburban.

Police described the suspects as in their late teens to early 20s and the victim as a man in his 30s.

A police detective viewed video surveillance footage and observed it showed Sevilla-Martinez as one of the females leaving the room and contacted her yesterday at her home in Centralia, placing her under arrest.

Given her age and the level of the charge, the state charged her in adult court, as it is an auto-decline circumstance, according to Meagher.
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For background, read “Vehicle, money stolen by armed suspects in Centralia” from Thursday December 7, 2017, here

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By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The man arrested in Vader smiled and thanked detectives when they complimented him on how nice his indoor marijuana growing operation was, according to court documents.

Heip D. Doan, 33, allegedly told Lewis County sheriff’s detectives he had multiple growing operations when he lived in California and had not yet started the paperwork to get permits for his ventures in Washington, the documents relate.

The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office had just finished seizing and loading up 674 mature plants from the property on the 700 block of B Street in Vader on Friday evening when Doan arrived to the home he said he rents from his sister-in-law. He looked at the back of the transport truck and said, “You’re taking my stuff,” court documents state.

Doan was arrested and booked into the Lewis County Jail.

Initiative 502 , voted into law in November 2012, made it legal for for individuals 21 or older to possess as much as one ounce of marijuana and also set up rules under which licensees may cultivate and package the greens and related products in Washington state.

Lewis County leaders chose to require applicants to provide approval from the federal government, which still outlaws marijuana, so no such businesses can operate legally in unincorporated Lewis County.

Doan was charged yesterday in Lewis County Superior Court with manufacture of marijuana, a class C felony with a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

Temporary defense attorney Rachael Tiller asked for the bail to be unsecured, and to take into consideration her client’s prior service in the U.S. Navy in Washington, and honorable discharge.

Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Paul Masiello noted the defendant had no prior convictions or warrants but said his driver’s license indicates he lives in San Jose, California.

Judge Joely O’Rourke imposed $25,000 bail.

His arraignment was initially scheduled for Thursday, but Tiller told the judge Doan has a court date in California on Wednesday and asked for his arraignment here to be set on Dec. 21.

Masiello said there was a December 2016 arrest in California for driving under the influence.

The judge agreed Doan could fly to California for his hearing, returning on Friday but required him to check in with the court on Monday.

While the outbuilding where Doan allegedly grew marijuana was across the street from Vader City Hall, local authorities only learned about it because Doan’s driver’s license was found at a home in Pacific County where Doan’s brother was arrested two weeks ago for unlawful marijuana growing.

Lewis County sheriff’s detectives began investigating and found the brother was a previous Lewis County PUD customer at the Vader property and Doan was the current customer, according to court documents. The electricity bill was unusually high, at $600 for a two-month period, according to court documents.

Deputies conducted surveillance at the Vader location twice, observing a residence, a garage and a large green outbuilding, which had all its windows “blacked out”, according to charging documents.

Some of the clues included a detectives detecting the odor of unburnt marijuana from 200 feet away, a humming noise consistent with the use of lights and fans, and a stack of potting soil packages and containers of liquid fertilizer they saw through a garage window, according to court documents.

When they executed the search warrant on Friday, they found the green outbuilding had been divided into three rooms, filled with growing marijuana plants.

“The rooms were all set up with ventilation into carbon filters and had lighting attached to programmable timers,” Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Joel DeFazio wrote in the affidavit regarding probable cause.

Deputies confiscated the plants and the the growing equipment, as well as more than $2,500 cash and several pieces of indicia from inside the house.

This arrest was tied to a growing operation in Grayland in Pacific County, but Sheriff Rob Snaza said it’s all tied together to the huge investigation in that began in Grays Harbor County.

On Nov. 28, the Grays Harbor County Drug Task Force oversaw a series of at least 50 search warrants getting served there, in Thurston County and in King County following an investigation into illegal marijuana growing operations by Chinese nationals. They had learned of numerous homes being purchased for that purpose, primarily for cash.
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For background, read “Illegal marijuana growing by Chinese nationals targeted in Grays Harbor County” from Tuesday November 28, 2017, here