Lewis County Sirens.com

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Authorities say the fatal shooting of three people inside a Lewis County home was sparked when the 52-year-old resident picked up a shotgun trying to get two men to leave, a pair of ex-convicts detectives suggest were attempting to extort thousands of dollars.

A visitor to David J. West Sr.’s Salkum-Onalaska area house told detectives he saw West point the gun at John Allen Booth Jr. in the kitchen and heard West say something to the effect of “You two m****** f****** get up and get out of here.”

John C. Lindberg said he then heard gunshots though he could not tell who was firing, and he ran into a bathroom and hid.

By 2:30 a.m. that morning two weeks ago, West, his 16-year-old son and a 50-year-old friend from Randle were laying dead inside the rental house off Gore Road. West’s girlfriend Denise Salts lay bleeding on the kitchen floor with a gunshot wound to her face.

The details of what Lewis County Sheriff’s Office detectives believe happened on Aug. 21 are described in a declaration of probable cause filed yesterday in Lewis County Superior Court when a second person was charged in the triple homicide.

Ryan Joseph McCarthy, a 28-year-old Redmond man went before a judge late yesterday in a Chehalis courtroom. He was charged with three counts of first-degree felony murder and extortion.

Judge James Lawler set bail at $2 million and appointed a public defender to represent McCarthy.

The Redmond man is described as a recent cell mate and best friend of the 31-year-old Onalaska man Booth who was charged with similar counts last week, as well as attempted murder.

Charging documents filed yesterday suggest the two men went to West’s house to collect $20,000 Booth allegedly told someone was related to bail money owed to him. West had also told his step-daughter he was being blackmailed, according to charging documents.

A primary document in the case – outlining what detectives uncovered about the case – was unsealed yesterday. The Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office had requested it remain unavailable as sheriff’s deputies continued their investigation and in part because prosecutors were contemplating upgrading the charges to aggravated first-degree murder.

They have not done that, but elected Lewis County Prosecutor Michael Golden told Judge Lawler in court yesterday his office expects to make a decision in the next couple of weeks.

Golden said after the hearing yesterday he’s charged both men in the same three deaths without particularly describing who fired a weapon.

“Frankly it doesn’t matter which one held the gun or if they both held the gun,” Golden said.

McCarthy was just released from prison the end of July, where he had spent four years for a drug conviction out of Grays Harbor County Superior Court. He had been convicted for possession of methamphetamine with intent to deliver, according to the Washington State Department of Corrections.

He was also incarcerated for a little over a year ending in late 2005 for residential burglary in Grays Harbor County. McCarthy’s temporary defense attorney yesterday noted to the judge his client had seven previous felony convictions.

The 28-year-old is known by his friend Robert “Robbie” Shawn Russell, 46, of Centralia as “White Folk”, according to charging documents. His forearms are tattooed with those words, according to charging documents and a photograph in the court file.

Russell, 46, of Centralia, is locked up in the Lewis County Jail as a person of interest in the homicides. He has not been charged.

McCarthy and Booth are scheduled for arraignment next Thursday.
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More on this later.

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Read the last news story on the case here.

Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter

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