Kristi R. Henderson and Zachary W. Gallagher await their turn before a Lewis County Superior Court judge.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – Four times in the week before the raid, detectives conducted surveillance as they sent a confidential informant to the South Market Boulevard house to purchase an eighth ounce of heroin.
Each time, the unmarried couple in their 20s who live behind a small taqueria at Fairview Avenue took $100 in exchange for the dark brown substance, according to charging documents.
Kristi R. Henderson, 28, and Zachary W. Gallagher, 25, were arrested Thursday night and three young children removed from the home. When police searched the residence, an unspecified quantity of suspected heroin was discovered on a plate in the living room and a .22 caliber pistol was found in a nightstand next to their bed, according to charging documents.
She admitted she used heroin and he told a detective they both used and sold it on a daily basis, charging documents allege.
Henderson and Gallagher appeared before a Lewis County Superior Court judge yesterday afternoon who ordered them held on $50,000 bail.
Defense attorney Bob Schroeter told the judge Gallagher had no current income and Henderson received about $1,000 a month, mostly from child support. Both qualified for court-appointed attorneys.
Charging documents allege some of the following details about the investigation:
The confidential informant told a Lewis County Sheriff’s Office detective the couple had been known to deal heroin for “some time.” The unnamed individual also said they have been inside the home when Henderson’s children played on the floor amidst a cloud of her heroin smoke.
The first controlled buy on Dec. 9 lasted only four minutes during which the informant was invited into a bedroom where Henderson broke off a chunk of heroin from a larger block and weighed it on a digital scale. The informant said they saw several people inside the house.
On Tuesday, the informant got an eighth ounce from Gallagher as Gallagher was taking out the trash. The informant returned Wednesday and again on Thursday after the detective listened in on a cell phone conversation arranging the final purchase.
Lewis County prosecutors note Henderson has a conviction for drug possession from 2005. Gallagher has 2003 convictions for second-degree burglary, theft and trafficking in stolen property, according to Deputy Prosecutor Kjell Warner.
Yesterday, she was charged with two counts of delivery of a controlled substance, a felony with a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.
He was charged with three counts of the same, as well as first-degree unlawful possession of a firearm.
The children, a 4-year-old boy and two girls, ages 6 and 11, were turned over to Child Protective Services during Thursday night’s police raid.
Chehalis Police Chief Glenn Schaffer said yesterday the arrests followed a three-week investigation.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter