By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – Twenty-one-year-old Jack A. Silverthorne is planning to plead guilty in last summer’s death of Morton teenager Austin King.
Austin King
Silverthorne’s lawyer said today attorneys have worked out a plea agreement in which the charges will be downgraded, and his client is looking at about eight and half years in prison.
Centralia attorney J.P. Enbody said it seemed he and prosecutors both came to understand Silverthorne caused the 16-year-old’s death, but it wasn’t something he set out to do.
Austin vanished from his family’s home in the Tilton River Mobile Home Park early on June 23 and was the subject of a month-long search headed up by volunteers. His body was found some 10 miles away off a logging road outside Morton.
Jack A. Silverthorne
Enbody said evidence showed the two were out on the logging road and there was a dispute. The exact details may never be known, he said.
Austin’s skull was cracked and Silverthorne had a broken bone in his hand, he said.
Silverthorne, who had been staying in the trailer park with his grandmother at the time, was arrested in November at his home in Renton and charged with first-degree murder.
Authorities have said in charging documents they believe Silverthorne’s motive was related to an attraction to a girl, the mother of Austin’s child.
He is expected to plead guilty to first-degree manslaughter on May 6.
•••
Read previous most recent story, here
Read more about the case in “Morton homicide: Suspect had broken hand, victim had cracked skull” from Wednesday Nov. 10, 2010, here
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
Ya that was my brother and that is just wrong for him to do that and he should have got longer in prison for life but you know he won’t be in there for life but my brother will always be there for me and be there with me and my other brothers and our family!!!!!
R.I.P Austin David Jon King
Love Sissy Kerrie
this is just wrong!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I don’t see how they can reduce it to manslaughter! Not with all the evidence and facts! Making a plea bargain is not obtaining justice! Why do we even have court rooms if thats all they are going to do!!!! If the jerkoff knows whats best for him, he should do all that he can to stay locked up!
This is complete BS just as bki said above. This PIECE OF CRAP knew exactly where Austin was the entire time his family and friends were searching for him yet he sat back on his ass and didn’t say anything. He watched these people suffer with not knowing where Austin was and he gets off this easy??
Bounty Killers inc: Straight up Bullshit; Manslaughter is a Serious Offense, & 8.5 Years is a Straight up Joke!!! The Prosecutors in Lewis County r Subverting Justice, but then again, Bounty Killers inc has never met an Above Board Prosecutor!!!!!!!!