By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
Convicted triple-murderer John A. Booth Jr. has lost one appeal, but at least one other is still pending.
The former Onalaskan was sentenced to life in prison for the August 2010 shootings at the home of 52-year-old David West Sr., from whom prosecutors contended Booth was seeking payment of a debt for Robbie Russell, a local drug dealer.
John A. Booth Jr.
Seattle lawyer Stephanie Cunningham argued numerous reasons his convictions in 2011 by a jury should be overturned, but a three-member panel of the Washington State Court of Appeals affirmed the convictions.
The 23-page opinion issued earlier this week was authored by Justice Thomas R. Bjorgen, with justices Bradley A. Maxa and Linda Cj Lee concurring.
According to testimony and evidence in the eight-day trial in Lewis County Superior Court, Booth was visiting the Salkum-Onalaska area residence when West brought out a shotgun to get him to leave and Booth shot him with a 9 mm handgun. Prosecutors said the shootings that followed were executions to eliminate witnesses.
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, survived. Booth denied shooting them.
Booth’s appeal lawyer claimed that 1) the to-convict jury instruction violated his right to trial by jury and 2) the state presented insufficient evidence to allow a conviction on the attempted extortion charge. In a statement of additional grounds, Booth also alleged that (3) the state obtained evidence against him in violation of the Privacy Act, chapter 9.73RCW; 4) the prosecutor committed misconduct when cross -examining him; 5) the trial court infringed his right to counsel; and 6) the trial court erroneously imposed legal financial obligations that his indigence prevented him from paying.
The appeals court disagreed with most of Cunningham’s contentions.
Booth was sentenced under the state’s so-called three strikes law.
A post-trial motion Booth filed from Walla Walla State Penitentiary asking a judge to to vacate his judgement and sentence however, still has not been argued.
Booth contends eavesdropping on inmates in the jail was governmental misconduct and jeopardized his rights to confidential communications with his lawyers. He called it “ear hustling”.
For that motion, he is represented by Aberdeen-based defense attorney Erik Kupka and his partner.
Booth was convicted in Lewis County Superior Court of one count of second-degree murder, two counts of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, attempted extortion and being a felon in possession of a firearm.
•••
For background, read:
• “Convict loses argument about burial expenses related to 2010 triple-homicide” from Monday December 16, 2013, here
• “One of John Booth’s appeals to murder conviction grinding slowly through local court” from Wednesday September 4, 2013, here
• “Ear hustling”: Convicted murderer John Booth tells judge about problems at Lewis County Jail” from Friday July 5, 2013, here
• State of Washington, Respondent V John Allen Booth Jr., Appellant – No. 42919-5-II, Unpublished Opinion, here
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
its not over with either… just wait for it… its gonna be good…
JustbecauseIcan says:
Sunday, January 25, 2015 at 11:19 am
and John Booth is coming back to lewis county court again… what do you know the prosecuters fucked up yet again…. priceless…..
Well, looks like that never happened.
Any more hot tips on jb?
That’s the first I’ve read regarding John booth coming back to lewis county. What’s the occasion?
@theres coffe and maple bars….. you really need some therapy to get past your penis fasination….
@freeair…. maybe you should pull your head out of the maple bars flatulent comments and read what I wrote… it wasnt directed at you at all… it was for the creepy guy so facinated with swinging packages…
and John Booth is coming back to lewis county court again… what do you know the prosecuters fucked up yet again…. priceless…..
JustbecauseIcan says:
Saturday, January 3, 2015 at 7:18 am
“I would bet good money nobody leaves their kids anywhere around
you….”
Sure wish we could make that bet. I could use a few extra coins around this time of year.
All your personal attacks changes absolutely nothing. jb is in prison for a very long time for murdering a child.
Call me whatever name you wish and make all the personal attacks you can conger up; he’s still there slowly rotting and I’m breathing free air, going anywhere I wish when I want.
Such is the life of a law abiding citizen.
@ JustbecauseIhavemaladaptivecognitivereasoning:
Since when do you care about the welfare of others?
Wrap your head around this:
1977 – a 14 year-old boy from Centralia goes missing. His body discovered in a shallow grave outside Yelm. The perpetrator – a 32-year-old man is tried and convicted. He begins filing the first of many appeals in 1979 – the latest in 2012 – filed from his cell in Monroe prison.
Now 70 years-old, he has spent the past thirty seven years behind concrete walls. Think of all the changes those decades have wrought. But he experienced none of them – ensconced as he is – and deservedly so, like Booth jr. behind prison walls segregated from society. Which is Booth jr’s. present and mortal future as well.
Which is more than afforded those they violated.
I’ll be sleeping in my own bed tonight – and not breathing the flatulent scented recirculated air of a state penitentiary — for the rest of a uneventfully unrelenting predictable life.
What’s Booth jr’s cigarette trade – value I wonder?
@free air… now just stomp your foot, thats all we are missing in your comment… like I said before…. all that blood money has gone to your head…. @coffee and maple bar freak… you spent too many years in the shower with your family members… you really need some therapy, because thats all you think about…. I would bet good money nobody leaves their kids anywhere around you….
One thing’s for sure — Booth jr. got to see more packages during his Christmas morning shower than any of you will see in a lifetime!
With that twisted reasoning You really do have a future in politics….
My statement concerning Booth’s guilt stands accurately all by itself. No embellishments needed or insinuated.
so what you are trying to say is that the police have never made a mistake.. and innocent people have never been convicted of crimes they did not commit… maybe you should turn on the news and see what the police have been up to lately….
Sorry, my previous post was too long for you.
My “point” is:
Booth was tried, found guilty and sentenced for murdering a child.
and we live in a world where the cops kill kids every day… and found innocent… so whats your point…
None of which removes the fact that Booth was tried, found guilty and sentenced for murdering a child.
@Free Air….. lmao… of coarse you want to stay on the subject where you say you believe that booth killed those people… lets not talk about your friends and family members who were killing everybody they came in contact with by selling that poison they were all getting high on… lets put them all up on a pedestal like saints because thats what you want to believe… wake the fuck up…. they were drug dealers… they were criminals… they all said fuck the laws… but then they ripped off robbie russell… who was also a drug dealer, a criminal, who doesnt believe there are any laws… I dont see him in prison any more… I dont even see his name mentioned more than a few times… nobody would have died if the boys father wouldnt have pulled out a shotgun… nobody would have died if the father would have paid for his drugs… nobody would have died if there wasnt any drugs in that house to begin with… nobody would have died if these people had got a job like the rest of people in society… let me ask a simple question… hypothetical of coarse… if you knew you had a huge drug debt, and the man you owed wasnt a understanding guy, “if” you loved your son so much why would you have him in the middle of the war you were about to start…. That young boy died because his dad was a worthless pile of shit… I still dont believe booth pulled that trigger… and there is gonna be some more court hearings for him to make his case on that… bottom line is that young boy died because his dad was a worthless lile of shit who didnt love him enough to set down his hypodermic needle and be a law abiding citizen, a father, and a role model…
and again I’m sitting here laughing as I drink my coffee… trying not to wake up my wife on her day off….. that blood money has made some of you addicts all uppity now hasn’t it…. We all have our opinions of what happened on that tragic night…. do I believe the cops who have proven countless times that they will lie on the stand…. nope… do I believe all these methheads on this post that are spending that blood money to support their drug habits…. no again…. I know some things that some of you know about this case, which will be coming to light in the next few years that is gonna make you high and mighty douche-bags squirm like the worms that you are… some of you know the truth already but all that blood money is keeping your mouths shut…. the truth is on its way…. so yell and scream all you want…. its gonna make this so much more rewarding…..
You’re tilting at windmills, Free Air. No sense in trying to get through to people to whom all cops are guilty and John Booth is innocent.
JustbecauseIcan says:
Monday, October 20, 2014 at 9:31 pm
Of course we should all believe the tweekers who got paid millions to repeat what the cops told them….
A Lurker says:
Monday, October 20, 2014 at 5:35 am
I want to line up all kidney dialysis patients and shoot them. They cost too many taxpayer dollars which directly reduces the amount of fun I can afford to have in life. My kidneys are fine, so I shouldn’t have to pay. Most of you don’t realize just how much these folks really cost you.
So much for logic.
Anyone who believes drug use is a victimless crime need only read this exchange to see what the real damage is.
Bottom line:
What needs to stay in focuse here is that Booth murdered a kid and two other adults and will spend the rest of his life in jail.
Any effort to somehow make Booth out to be some sort of folk hero or framed by the police, prosecutor’s office, fire dept and whoever keeps missing that point. He murdered a kid who’s only crime was to be born to a drug dealing dad. That’s hardly anything you can hold a child accountable for, let alone condone the murder of.
Of course we should all believe the tweekers who got paid millions to repeat what the cops told them…. my guess is some of you here are rolling on some of that blood money…. so just keep hitting that pipe and smoke your shame away….
Free Air
I can’t tell in your last post, if those are your quotes or whose. I haven’t commented on the who dunnit in this matter because I never knew the players. It’s been years since I’ve used the white poison. This really is a bad, bad deal. One could say that if the guns weren’t there, this wouldn’t have happened. I don’t think gun control is the answer and I can’t have guns. GET RID OF THE EPHEDRA OR SHUT THE FUCK UP works for me and just maybe it could work for you too. I seriously believe that Meth can be gotten rid of using the Quaalude solution. The social wreckage of the last 40 years should be a relatively good indication, that society as a whole, has handled the disease of addiction in a dismally poor manner. But we will probably keep doing the same things, expecting different results!
A Lurker says:
Monday, October 20, 2014 at 4:15 am
Free Air
You are completely missing my point….
You said Booth didn’t do it. I’m only asking who did? Your response once again never answered the question, only ranted about cops and government, so here it is again:
“I do not believe Booth shot anybody, and if the drug addict father had not pulled out a shotgun nobody would have been killed in the first place….”
So you acknowledge there was a shooting that was in your opinion caused by the father pulling a shotgun, (i.e. on Booth) but Booth did not (according to you) do the shooting.
So I’ll ask it again. If not Booth, then who in your mind did?
Why did Booth say it was his pistol?
How did Booth’s DNA get on the gun?
Why did Booth’s accomplice bail out of the car throwing up from what he said he saw Booth do?
Why did Salts ID Booth as the shooter?
Why did the bullets inside the bodies match up from Booth’s gun?
Protecting someone else who did the shooting is a worthless claim. No sane person takes the blame for murdering a boy let alone two other people and one near death.
The fire department did not arrive until quite some time later once the area was secured, so they didn’t do it. Neighbors called in the shooting complaint, long before the cops arrived, so the cops didn’t do it.
That does not leave many other possibilities, so I’m ready to hear your enlightened explanation.
I want to line up all kidney dialysis patients and shoot them. They cost too many taxpayer dollars which directly reduces the amount of fun I can afford to have in life. My kidneys are fine, so I shouldn’t have to pay. Most of you don’t realize just how much these folks really cost you.
Next on the list will be diabetics, and I’m just gonna stop giving them their insulin, which will give me more money to have fun. The majority of them are there because of their own choices anyway. Nobody made them eat that ice cream and they could have ran that extra mile. THEY HAD CHOICES! It must be more difficult saying no to an ice cream cone than a hit of meth.
Smokers need to be added to the death list at some point in time. The FED requires revenue replacement be in place prior to their execution.
Lets execute the sick until there are no more of them and that includes anyone taking a prescription medication. If you weren’t ill, you wouldn’t need a pill.
JustbecauseIcan says: I guess everyone has already forgotten that the father was a scumbag methhead
Do you think that when this guy was 5 years old, he said “I wanna be a scumbag methhead when I grow up”? Do you think for 2 seconds that this guy didn’t try to crawl out of that Hellhole more than once? So just exactly when did he become a scumbag anyway? Was it when he was born with a genetic predisposition to the disease of addiction? Was it when he took his first hit when he got high? Was it when he told his mother he loved her, after she read him his favorite bedtime story when he was 7? He started out like we all do and somewhere along the way he became a scumbag. Just when was that?
My personal opinion is that he wasn’t a scumbag, he was sick.
Free Air
You are completely missing my point. These deaths were a tragedy because all murders are a tragedy. You applaud law enforcement actions when they murder people. THAT IS MY POINT DUMBASS! They have murdered several people in the past few years. on top of that the public seems to be OK with a corrupt Prosecuting Atty. that blesses their murders. Murder is murder and a bad deal to whoever falls victim to death in that manner. What is extremely disgusting is people like you who applaud law enforcement actions when they murder a sick person.
JustbecauseIcan says:
Sunday, October 19, 2014 at 5:36 am
“again I am so blown away by the ignorance displayed by the people who post on John’s case…..”
And I’m sure on that note, we all can agree.
Just for the heck of it, and I know I’ll regret this, but you also go on to say:
“I do not believe Booth shot anybody, and if the drug addict father had not pulled out a shotgun nobody would have been killed in the first place….”
So you acknowledge there was a shooting that was in your opinion caused by the father pulling a shotgun, (i.e. on Booth) but Booth did not (according to you) do the shooting.
So I’ll ask it again. If not Booth, then who in your mind did?
Why did Booth say it was his pistol?
How did Booth’s DNA get on the gun?
Why did Booth’s accomplice bail out of the car throwing up from what he said he saw Booth do?
Why did Salts ID Booth as the shooter?
Why did the bullets inside the bodies match up from Booth’s gun?
Protecting someone else who did the shooting is a worthless claim. No sane person takes the blame for murdering a boy let alone two other people and one near death.
The fire department did not arrive until quite some time later once the area was secured, so they didn’t do it. Neighbors called in the shooting complaint, long before the cops arrived, so the cops didn’t do it.
That does not leave many other possibilities, so I’m ready to hear your enlightened explanation.
I guess it’s easier to blame the victims for their execution-style deaths…not too convenient for them to refute your claims that way. Yeah, John Booth is blameless because, well, that’s what he must’ve told you and that’s all we need to exonerate him. Sheesh.
again I am so blown away by the ignorance displayed by the people who post on John’s case….. I guess everyone has already forgotten that the father was a scumbag methhead who loved his son so much he had him right smack in the middle of his drug dealing ways which made him a part of the scenario….. The son was a willing individual who watched his father destroy the lives of everybody he came in contact with and lived the lifestyle that drugs and money provide… and before you people start to attack me for what I am saying, no I do not believe the boy should have been shot…. the rest of them, and even the rest of the tweekers in society would be a blessing if they were erased from our lives… Russel will get what Karma has set up for him, of that I have no doubt… but the bottom line in this story is that I do not believe Booth shot anybody, and if the drug addict father had not pulled out a shotgun nobody would have been killed in the first place…. Its a horrible story which begins with Russel and drugs and ends with a boy who lost his life… Is it any different than what our govt does in the middle east to families who hide the terrorists…. Just kill them all and let God sort them out… Its on a much smaller scale, but its pretty much what we all pay our govt to do… weed out the trash… and there is always innocents….
yes sharyn have you found more out about Robbie Russell I believe he is out on work release unless he got caught with drugs again or trying to smuggle money out of other people
A Lurker says:
Sunday, August 17, 2014 at 6:54 am
When a sick person murders sick people, you think he should be put to death. When PIGS murder sick people, you applaud their actions. Man I’m tellin ya, it just don’t get much more fucked up than that.BTW Free Air: The anti-death penalty wack jobs would include the MAJORITY of the rest of the world. So WHO would really be the wack job?You sound like a pig, a stinkin NAZI PIG!
Ok, here we go folks!
What was “sick” about a 16 year old boy asleep in his home, in his own bed before he was gut shot, hauled down the hallway and executed next to his already murdered father? What “sick” thing did he do to earn that label from you?
Further, just where do I think John Booth should be put to death? On the contrary, I wished him a very long life; 101 years to be exact.
Death Penalty:
Yes, the phrase “Whack Jobs” was out of line. My apologizes to those with deeply head beliefs for any offence I may have caused, and you have my sincere apologies. Resorting to name calling only proved to lower my public IQ and degrade the content of my view on the matter, which is the death penalty, at it’s best, if properly enforced does work both as a deterrent and prevents repeat offences.
“…stinkin NAZI PIG!”
Ummm, yea. I guess now I don’t feel quite so embarrassed about using the phrase “whack jobs”.
In all fairness, I’ll give you two out of three.
No to being a NAZI. My Jewish roots and respect for other enlightened cultures prevent that.
No to being a PIG, as proofed by the fact that I can type and have fingers and not hooves.
Yes, to Stinking. I’m working in the garden today and have yet to shower, so I’m sure it’s no wonderful fragrance being downwind of me. However, tonight I’ll be cleaned up whereas your vocabulary will most like be no better suited for public consumption.
Well, lunch is finished and the beans need canning.
Have a nice day.
“You sound like a pig, a stinkin NAZI PIG!”
Sixties much?
When a sick person murders sick people, you think he should be put to death. When PIGS murder sick people, you applaud their actions. Man I’m tellin ya, it just don’t get much more fucked up than that.
BTW Free Air: The anti-death penalty wack jobs would include the MAJORITY of the rest of the world. So WHO would really be the wack job?
You sound like a pig, a stinkin NAZI PIG!
Lisarae I am familiar with the austin king murder and I strongly agree with you the one suffering the most from that is his daughter who doesnt know why she has to go up on the mountain to visit him and its sad to know she will never have that relationship if the prosecutors would make examples out of people like silverthorne maybe we wouldnt have people like booth running around.but they would rather spend the money trying a death by sales where a man sold another some herion that took his life as a murder one charge sure he should be held accountable but for no more than a delivery or at most manslaughter how can the prosecuter spend the money on him but not on booth
I hope someone wipes that smirk off his face in prison.
I believe this entire crime spree was motivated by drugs and the proceeds that go with it. The upcoming concern should be Robbie Russell’s release from prison. Word on the street is that he will be gracing us all with his presence in the next couple of months.
If this sirens page reaches over 50,000 people how come there is only a hand full willing to stand up for whats right could be whats wrong with the system today united we stand.
In no way, shape, form, or fashion am I defending anything this killer did, however, I just want to point something out. As innocent as DJ was, his father took him to the place where his life ended. Daddy payed the price for exposing his child to a dangerous environment. Now, shall we chat about the Austin King murder? His barbaric killer received 8.5 years for one of Lewis Counties most horrific crimes. Wrap your mind around that…..8.5 years for beating a child to death. A 16 year old boy, whose only crime, was his unfortunate affiliation with a female. 8.5 years, of which he will probably only serve 5. Booth will likely never see daylight again, and for this I am thankful. Jack Silverthorne, will be back soon~
http: //www .cncpunishment. com/forums/showthread.php?4265-Jack-Arnold-Silverthorne-Sentenced-to-8-1-2-Years-in-2010-WA-Slaying-of-Austin-King
It is of little consequence now that Gov. Inslee on his own initiative put a moratorium on the death penalty without conferring with anyone. Talk abut cowardly he refused to meet with families of murder victims.
Booth will continue to file appeals until he either wins one or is too old to write. That is how has operated throughout his entire criminal history.
Twisted,
The PA Office did that some time ago. It all boiled down to how much it would have cost the county if they sought the death penalty by the time all the automatic appeals would be filed. They also did not want to turn this psychotic killer into a cause celebrity for the anti-death penalty wack jobs. This way he will be forgotten while he rots away in prison. No glamour or nation press time, just years dragging by like a slowly dying tree; one leaf at a time.
I feel mr meyer or someone in the prosecutors office should come forward with their reasoning behind not seeking the death penalty in this case we the people are finding this difficult to swallow.
Just one question: Where is Booth finding these lawyers to represent him and who is paying for them? Us? Are they public defenders?
I keep expecting John Henry Browne to show up, but the TV stations aren’t covering this and John Henry only goes where the cameras are (must’ve learned that from the late Tony Savage, who was always popping up on the news in the 80’s).
Maybe it is time some of the fellas in WallaWalla receive a letter outlining his cowardly child killer ways….
I can see where the prosecuter could settle for life with the adults but c mon he aint much better than booth if he cant see what every one else does including the judge when he stated if there ever was a more clear cut case for the death penalty in lewis county this is it when society allows a cold hearted child killer to slip through the cracks then why do we even have the death penalty I guess its alright to take a 15 year old child with his whole life ahead of him put him on his knees begging for his life then shoot him exection style while his father watched is pure malice so who speaks for dave jr.
I completely agree.
Booth murdered a child after putting him on his knees next to his already murdered dad.
To anyone in Prison with Booth, remember this; The kid he murdered had never done anything to deserve those bullets. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. That could just as easily been your nephew, son or brother. Only a coward would kill an unarmed boy.
I hope John is treated with all due respect any child killer deserves every day, and lives to be 101 years old.
I can’t believe that the media and such are NOT stressing the fact that HELLO THIS MONSTER SHOT AND KILLED A COMPLETLY INNOCENT CHILD isn’t that enough? I mean its a total tragidy that others were shot and killed but that boy dj had no wrong doings no beef with john booth no outstanding drug debts or anything of the sort JUST PLAIN INNOVCENT