Christopher C. Tortorici is brought before a judge in Lewis County Superior Court.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – A Chehalis couple was arrested yesterday following a search at their home that turned up drugs and suspected items for dealing them.
Thirty-five-year-old Dawn M. Morningstar-Barnett allegedly told detectives it was mostly her, but they had been selling heroin for several months, to about 10 people a day, according to court papers.
The search warrant was served at their shared residence at the 700 block of Southwest Cascade Avenue.
Numerous items were found in her boyfriend’s pockets, as the two said they thought the visit was from her community corrections officer who could not search him, so he gathered up everything, the documents state.
Christopher C. Tortorici, 36, had $160 in his pockets, along with two small plastic ziplock bags containing a brown powdery substance, a bindle with suspected methamphetamine, a pipe, syringes, two methadone pills, and a prescription bottle containing Suboxone strips and buprenorphine hydrochloride, according to his charging documents.
The documents relate that twice since Aug. 24, Morningstar-Barnett was the target of so-called controlled buys from police informants.
Both were charged in Lewis County Superior Court today with possession of heroin with intent to deliver and delivery of heroin. Morningstar-Barnett was charged with an additional count of delivery.
Judge Nelson Hunt, noting Tortorici was a graduate of drug court, set his bail at $100,000.
Hunt granted a temporary no-bail hold for Morningstar-Barnett, after prosecutors said she wasn’t able to leave the jail to come to court because she was having withdrawal.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter