By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
The state has paid $3 million to the families of the murder victims of John Allen Booth, three individuals who were shot to death by an ex-convict who was supposed to be under supervision after his release from prison.
John Allen Booth Jr.
The state Department of Corrections issued a statement today on the settlement reached after a claim for damages was filed.
“The heinous murders that John Allen Booth Jr. committed caused unbearable heartache for multiple families,” the news release stated. “We hope these settlements help his victims’ families with their loss. We are also glad that we were able to reach an agreement with the victims’ families to avoid costly litigation.”
Booth, 32, was sent to prison for life last December after his convictions in the slayings of David West Sr., 52, David “D.J.” West Jr., 16, and 50-year-old Tony Williams of Randle.
The three, along with Denise Salts who survived a gunshot to the face, were found in the home Salts and the Wests shared on Wings Way in the Onalaska-Salkum area on August 21, 2010.
Booth was released from prison in December 2009 and was supposed to be on supervision from DOC, but after he was arrested it appeared his community corrections officer hadn’t contacted him for several months.
The minimum number of contacts required for a high risk violent offender was four times each month.
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For background, read “John Booth Jr.: State prison doesn’t know if it was closely enough monitoring ex-convict charged in triple homicide” from Saturday August, 28, 2010, here
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
finally someone with some sense……..Amazed…….
@Amazed…. insert slow clap…. well said…
@sarah… wow isnt that a shame that your mom is only getting a million and a half to spend on enough meth to destroy every one around her… in most countys they arrest drug dealers not pay them millions of dollars… but then what can you expect from ass backwards lewis county…. your mom got up there and told all the lies the detectives wanted her to say is why she got paid at all… typical lewis county justice….. I am so glad I moved away from all the drug addicts that infect that area….
I find it almost comical that the state would feel obligated to pay out any money to a bunch of tweekers who decided to rip off R Russell… how is it that the guy who orchestrated and ultimately killed all these tweekers never saw the inside of a courtroom.. leave it to the Lewis County courts to make to make you all look like a bunch of inbreds… That county is ran by a bunch of fucking idiots just like grant childers….
Its funny that all you guys think my mom is getting all this money. my mom isnt going to be getting half of it. tonys kids are recieving most the money because the are under 18 and lost their dad. You all just assume shit, but dont know most of whats going on.
Amazed, in this state, illegal activity is rewarded with fame, fortune, and free stays in luxurious resorts with free food, free cable, free education, free anything you want, but being a law-abiding citizen gets you punished, penalized, chastised, and ridiculed. Then they tax you to pieces in order for the criminal element to live their lives of luxury.
And yes, I think it is time to stop coddling those in prison, and make “incarceration” just that. Time to end their “three hots and a cot”, but make them work for what they get. And THEY should be the ones paying for it.
“The state” did not fail to supervise Booth. At least one individual person failed to do her or his job. More likely, several individual people failed to do their jobs properly, at several points throughout the system from the management level down.
“The state” should therefore not be paying restitution to the families. The individuals who committed malfeasance or misfeasance should pay restititution, and the most-culpable should also lose their jobs — just as would any private sector employee who caused a huge embarrassing fiasco for their company.
When we hold “the state” responsible, we really hold no one responsible… except, of course, for the taxpayers who have to foot the bill. We thus encourage our state employees (they work for us!) to continue doing poor work. We also encourage their managers to overschedule their time and to pile more work on the people they supervise than it would be reasonable for those people to handle. If each and ever state employee, including all managers, knew that he or she would be personally on the hook for situations like this, they would not let such situations happen.
thank you, Amazed!
2> My Life Insurance that I pay for monthly won’t pay my family anything if I my death has anything to do with Illegal activity. What is the difference?
I have mixed feelings about this. 1> That is a ridiculous amount of money. So, let me get this straight. If I was a drug user & dealer and I was killed because of a drug deal gone bad ‘so to speak’ by an ex-con who’s PO hadn’t followed up on him.? My family would be awarded 1 MILLION $? Why? They were all participating in illegal activity (I will add before some1 viciously attacks me) with the exception of the Teen. Don’t get me wrong..this is a very sad situation. But, paying the families $3million from the taxes I pay because of Drugs..I have a problem with that. I understand, yes it is a wrongful death situation & once again the Dept. of Corrections dropped the ball (what’s new?) I’ve heard most ex con’s don’t check in & never get in trouble for it. But this is Flat out Wrong! I feel bad for the victims families (really I’m not heartless) & the state does need to take responsiblility..but on the other hand..if the victims wouldn’t have been dealing drugs..this wouldn’t have happened.
Exactly right MonkeysUncle. The taxpayers suffer for all government payouts on these damn lawsuits. Used to be you couldn’t sue the government. It seems logical to be able to sue the government for incompetence, right? But few realize we are actually suing ourselves… and everyone wonders why taxes go up and up and up.
We are the ones paying the judgement. And the state employees’ and agencys that are supposed to be doing a competent job for the public who pay their salarys operate with zero accountability.
Again it’s the state’s DSHS monolith thats behind yet another screw up that leads to peoples deaths, and a big financial hit to the tax payers.
I was one probation years ago for a misdemeaner offence, I had five or six different C.O’s in the 24 month period of probation.
Val, the families are getting the money not because the state is sorry for them being killed, but because the state was supposed to have been keeping an eye on the “thing” that eventually murdered them. The state is paying because they failed to do their basic job.
I don’t understand why the state needs to pay 3 million dollars for a lost loved ones…if a family members love has no cost and nothing or no money could replace them …how could someone accept blood money….basically taking payment for them losing their lives…the killer being in jail would be justice enough or should be… on that note the money will be wasted on drugs….. and drugs….and more drugs…… the state should do a follow up story titled: what did the hurt families spend their money on
I don’t quite believe that, CNH – there are programs to help people, but if the users don’t want help then there’s no point in it. Like the old adage – you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink. Yes a lot of money gets thrown around thinking it will fix things, but we all know that it doesn’t.
In the end, we are each responsible for our actions; Period.
Locking up a child killer like Booth for life is as close to rehabilitating him as you’ll ever get.
I have no sympathy for someone who would execute a child for his own blood lust.
The whole legal system is a Joke. The state has spent over 200 million dollars just last year alone convicting Marijuana crimes. The justice systems rehabiliates hardly anyone anymore. Shelton use to have an auto body program and Mc Neil Island also had a dairy farm. Now the System just stacks as many people as possible in prison. A lot of people could of been helped, but Corrections is now all about money and housing inmates, rehabilitation is a thing of the Past. If good programs were offered more people would change. Ask yourself right now, where or who would you turn too if you had mental issues and a drug problem? All the programs that can help are out of everyones reach, unless your rich. And further more the Centralia Kangaroo Court could have a work crew. Setting examples and holding people accountable is a epic idea. But the prison sytem is no longer rehabilitating anyone. It’s prison for profit
His parole officer was probably too busy doing meth with Grant Childers to care.