Hennessy R. Turner-White faces a judge today in Lewis County Superior Court.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – One of three suspects in a Centralia home invasion in which a pet dog was shot and killed early last year apologized to one of the victims today, just before he was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Hennessy R. Turner-White of Portland was 22 when he was arrested last summer as police began to piece together what led to incident at the 1200 block of Marion Street, at the north end of town.
Officers had arrested a 17-year-old Centralia boy, Brian A. Carreon, and subsequently arrested another Portland man, 26-year-old Deandre J. Perry.
Marion Street, Feb. 19, 2015
Carreon’s sister from Portland, Taina Duncan, was arrested and charged with rendering criminal assistance for allegedly driving the others to the house.
On the night of Feb. 19, 2015, Dustin Palermo and his girlfriend had just settled into bed to watch a movie, when about three males barged through the door demanding money and weed, and fired numerous shots killing their pit bull Misty.
The former Navy corpsman had a small, and legal, amount of medical marijuana plants growing inside, for himself and another patient. It turned out, prosecutors alleged in court papers, the teenager had been there before and took a video of himself trimming the plants.
Turner-White in a plea deal pleaded guilty to first-degree attempted robbery, first-degree burglary, two counts of second-degree assault and one count of first-degree animal cruelty.
His lawyer asked the judge to go along with the agreed recommendation of 144 months in prison.
“He made a horrible decision, that will affect his life forever,” Robert Quillian said. “Fortunately, he will be a relatively young man when he is released.”
Turner-White’s mother was the only person present in the courtroom to support him.
Palermo addressed the judge, saying the hardest part has been that his children’s friends can’t come around, because he was labeled a drug user.
Before he was sentenced, Turner-White turned to face Palermo and said he was sorry. He told him he didn’t shoot his dog to be mean, but only out of fear.
Lewis County Superior Court Judge James Lawler agreed to the deal the lawyers had worked out.
The defendant had no criminal history.
Lawler told him his incredibly stupid and bad decision is why he was getting so much time.
“You’re a young man, if you want to have a life, you’ll have to do things differently,” Lawler said. “But first you’ll have to pay the penalty.”
Perry has already pleaded guilty and is going to be sentenced on Wednesday.
Carreon is scheduled to be in court on Oct. 19, expected to plead guilty and be sentenced.
Lewis County Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecutor Brad Meagher said he’s still trying to get Duncan back up here from Portland. Her trial is still on the court’s calendar for the week of Nov. 14.
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For background, read “Law enforcement finds Centralia robbery suspect in Vancouver jail” from Thursday October 1, 2015, here
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Correction: This had been updated to reflect the correct date of Brian A. Carreon’s upcoming court hearing.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter