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By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – Lewis County prosecutors have filed a criminal charge against a 24-year-old woman who allegedly tried to kill herself by lighting a fire in her bedroom and trying to inhale the smoke.
The woman subsequently told a police officer when she noticed flames going up the wall, she remembered there were people nearby so she called 911, according to court documents.
The fire in November in Centralia caused heavy damage to the single-wide mobile home and started to spread to nearby trees before it was extinguished.
She went before a judge this afternoon in Lewis County Superior Court, charged with first-degree arson. She arrived at the courtroom in a wheelchair, accompanied by her father.
Judge Andrew Toynbee allowed her to remain free pending trial on a $25,000 unsecured bond.
The fire happened about 11:40 a.m. on Nov. 21 in the 1300 block of Harrison Avenue. Firefighters at the time said they arrived to find smoke coming from all the windows and that the sole occupant had already exited the residence.
Riverside Fire Authority at the time stated there were no injuries and the occupant was transported to Providence Centralia Hospital for evaluation.
Charging documents in the case, however, state she was taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation and that’s where a Centralia police officer spoke with her.
The woman told the officer she placed stuffed animals and napkins on the floor between her bed and the wall, threw one or two matches down and positioned her head close to the floor to breathe in the smoke, according to the court documents.
First-degree arson is a felony with a maximum penalty of life in prison.
Outside the courtroom, the woman said she owned the home “outright” and her father said she would be pleading not guilty.
Lewis County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Will Halstead said she was summonsed to appear before the judge yesterday, but wrote it down wrong on her calendar as today. A no-bail warrant was issued yesterday.
Asked about charging someone with a felony who was attempting suicide, Halstead said he would not talk about the case, and “there is more to it than that.”
The defendant was given a court appointed lawyer. Her arraignment is scheduled for Feb. 1.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
Seems the laws concept of ownership makes destruction of your own property illegal. Is it ever truly yours!? The injured party would be yourself you can’t press charges on yourself so the state does it for you. Pretty cool huh?
I believe the term being used was “crime”.
Go ahead, try to suicide. If you don’t succeed you will be detained by a police officer against your will. Then you will be evaluated by a County Designated Mental Health Professional to see if you are a “danger to self and others” under the laws of Washington state. If adjudicated by said CDMHP as true, you will be involuntarily hospitalized in a locked ward. Not arrested? Not imprisoned? Not illegal? That’s just lawyer talk, aka “liarspeak.”
Lorenzo Dow, an evangelist of the last century, was on a preaching tour when he came to a small town one cold winter’s night. He entered the local general store to get some warmth, and saw the town’s lawyers gathered around the pot-bellied stove discussing the town’s business. Not one offered to allow Dow into the circle.
Dow told the men who he was, and that he had recently had a vision where he had been given a tour of Holy Hell, much like the traveler in Dante’s Inferno. When one of the lawyers asked him what he had seen, he replied, “Very much what I see here: all of the lawyers, gathered in the hottest place.”
“Trying to suicide” certainly should be a crime….. against the English language. However attempting suicide as a crime, was repealed in 1975 in Washington State. As a side note, in 2009, the state actually put into law something called the death with dignity act, which is not even remotely applicable in this case.
Trying to suicide is also a crime, but it looks like she didn’t try very hard and may have been acting out for attention, anger, etc. Then again it may be just an excuse to get out of punishment.
First degree arsonis a felony with a maximum penalty of life in prison….. really? Please say this is false…. but we have grown men & women molesting children & they get a couple yrs… please tell me how this seems justifiable…