Hillary Harader, far left, faces Judge Nelson Hunt while her husband, in red, speaks with his attorney.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – With almost two dozen family members, friends, co-workers and even their pastor and employer occupying the row of benches behind them, a Centralia couple pleaded guilty to their roles in an incident which included a bullet ending up lodged in the side of the Dairy Bar on Chehalis’s Main Street.
Both entered into plea deals with the Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office.
Matthew W. Harader, 27, admitted he fired a shot toward an occupied pickup truck.
Hillary M. Harader, 23, admitted she subsequently took the gun from her husband and helped destroy it.
The couple went before a judge yesterday afternoon in Lewis County Superior Court in connection with the events that occurred around 3:15 a.m. on Aug. 28.
Chehalis police responded to the area of the gas station at the 600 block of Main Street, to a report of a shooting. The clerk said two men and a woman had been inside the store there, although they arrived in separate vehicles, according to court documents. She then saw what looked like one male outside who appeared to fire toward a pickup truck heading westbound, court documents related.
When police spoke to the two men from the truck, they indicated they’d left the store and one of two men there began to yell and chase them, before firing a weapon.
Nobody was injured. Police recovered two .45 caliber casings at the scene.
Lewis County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Will Halstead told the judge his office has not heard back from the victims. He revealed there actually were four people inside the truck.
He said he watched the surveillance video from the Jackpot the following day, and saw of them inside the store, but didn’t see any contact between them.
“Something happened outside,” Halstead said. “We believe words were spoken from the victim towards a female.”
He said obviously it was a spur of the moment crime that occurred, that Matthew Harader was probably high on meth.
Matthew Harader pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree assault and one count of second-degree assault.
The standard sentencing range for his offenses is between 111 months and 147 months, and Halstead asked for 147.
His lawyer Katherine Gulmert said her client is extremely remorseful
Judge Nelson Hunt agreed to the prison term of twelve years and three months. He said the three years of community custody following release should include a drug treatment program.
When it came time for Hillary Harader to plead guilty to second-degree rendering criminal assistance and tampering with evidence, the judge volunteered he knew her well.
“I’ve known her since she was a child, she was a good friend of my daughter’s,” Hunt said, adding she was also involved in recovery court.
He asked Halstead and her lawyer if either objected to him presiding. They didn’t.
Halstead said when the vehicles left the gas station, Matthew Harader got out of the vehicle he was in and ran back to the car his wife was in, giving her a handgun to dispose of.
Her attorney Robert Brungardt told the judge that his client authorized him to approach prosecutors the very day of her arraignment.
“She knew she had a duty to acknowledge and accept the consequences,” he said.
The two sides recommended to the judge that Hillary Harader serve 60 days, with the option of doing it on electronic home monitoring. And also that $6,000 worth of fines be suspended provided she has no law violations.
Judge Hunt agreed.
He ordered her to report to the Lewis County Jail by Oct. 25, or show evidence she’s on the home monitoring by then.
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For background read “Chehalis shooting: Firearm still missing, one round recovered from Dairy Bar” from Friday September 2, 2016, here
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
The fact that the judges daughter used to play with the alleged victims daughter causes bias, the Judge should of automatically recused himself from the case. This opens up an automatic appeal. Only in Lewis County. Am I right or am I wrong here?
How can we make America any “safer?” One in four of the worlds inmates are incarsarated in United States prisons. That’s 25% of the worlds prison population.
“How about make American safe again.”
How about moving?
No injury no victim no crime.
To the lady that called Lewis Co. a bunch of rednecks. I agree that this should not have happened, but calling ppl derogatory names because they CHOOSE to carry a handgun is not helping to “make america safe again”. If anything, that kind of ignorance will only make problems worse. Please, mother of five, do your homework. I and others are permit holding carriers. We have passed federal background checks and fingerprinting. Those two broke the law. They are what we legal firearm carriers dread seeing and hearing about. A lot of us legal firearm carriers also attend classes to understand the responsibility and laws that go with legally carrying a firearm. Instead of grouping all firearm carrying ppl together into a group of “rednecks” why don’t you do some research and help prevent illegal firearm ownership instead brandishing all of us as one and the same. This is a democracy and it is our constitutional right to keep and bare arms to protect ourselves AND our country. In my opinion, you’re the scary one. Teaching your five children biased views without informing them of the true nature of the law should be a crime within itself. Cars do not get drunk and go driving around on their own creating mayhem. Guns do not shoot themselves. I’m glad that the Honorable Nelson Hunt agreed to the sentence that the defendant asked for. As for yourself, you seem quite uneducated. Maybe you’re the redneck.
I’m agreeing with Crazy Old Man. I’ve seen his way of doing business as a prosecutor, not a fan then, not a fan now.
thank goodness these knuckleheads didn’t kill someone
Yep, gun control would have certainly stopped the problem – FFS, the people that WANT the guns will GET the guns!! Gun control will only take the LEGAL guns out of the hands of the law abiding citizens…Personally, I don’t own a gun, don’t plan on owning one, but the people that do own them (legally) should be able to have them. it’s the asshats that get them illegally are the problem – tell me how we control that…???
Personally I think that 12 years is excessive for a case where no one was hurt and the so called “victims” have reason not to come forward.
Yep, it was a bad thing and someone could have been hurt or killed but does it really help society to put this man, who made a mistake, behind bars for that length of time?
And the wife gets off with no jail as she played with the Honorable Judge Hunt’s daughter when she was a child. He may no overtly have given her a break, but the sentiment was there just as it was to put her husband away for a very long time.
I think this will be one of those cases which will come back to the Lewis County courts within the next 2 years.
More trump supporters causing problems. Hilary clinton you’ve got my vote! Gun control would have stopped this entire problem! As a mother of five children I am disgusted! This should never happen! Make American great again? How about make American safe again.