Lewis County Sirens.com

Defense attorney Mike Underwood, aided by an interpreter, advises a group of defendants of their rights before a hearing Lewis County Superior Court.

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Four people were arrested yesterday when drug detectives found a north Centralia home housing an approximately $1.3 million marijuana growing operation.

Law enforcement discovered seven growing rooms, each set up in a sophisticated manner to include lights, ballasts, fans and a hydroponic watering system, according to authorities.

They counted 901 plants, each capable of producing about a pound of marijuana.

The arrestees included a 27-year-old man and his 21-year-old wife who are students as well as a 46-year-old woman and a 79-year-old woman. They said they live in Portland.

Members of the Lewis County Joint Narcotics Enforcement Team began investigating the house on Susan Street in August with records from the power company that showed a high use of electricity, according to court documents.

When two of the detectives knocked on the door yesterday, Chaohui Tan, 27, answered questions and said he had a medical marijuana authorization but wouldn’t produce it, according to court documents. Because of his evasive demeanor, police decided to remove everyone to preserve any evidence, the documents relate.

Mei Lan Su, 79, was contacted in the basement trimming plants, according to the documents.

All four were booked into the Lewis County Jail and charged today with manufacture of marijuana in Lewis County Superior Court.

They spoke to a judge this afternoon in court making use of a Cantonese-Chinese interpreter.

Temporary defense attorney Mike Underwood requested court appointed lawyers for each of them.

He said they all live together in a Portland home owned by one of them, Nianhua Chen, 46, who is the only one with a job. She works in a restaurant earning about $1,600 a month, Underwood told the judge.

Manufacture of marijuana has a maximum penalty of five years in prison and/or a $10,000 fine.

Lewis County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Sara Beigh began by  asking the judge to hold them on $500,000 bail. She said she was concerned about them returning to court, given the large scale of the operation and the potential for access to other assets.

The first defendant, 21-year-old Xiaohui Zhang, has no criminal history that either Beigh or Underwood were aware of. Underwood asked she be released on her personal recognizance.

Judge James Lawler set bail at $50,000 for her and then for the other three.

Information in their court documents list three of them as residing at a Portland address and the 79-year-old as living at 216 Susan Street in Centralia.

Lewis County records show the five-bedroom home in Centralia was purchased in July of this year by an individual with a San Francisco address.

Tan told detectives he purchased all the equipment himself and doesn’t have a job, according to court documents. Detectives checked and found no state license to grow marijuana had been issued for the address.

Their arraignments are all scheduled for next Thursday in Lewis County Superior Court.

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By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The apartment manager charged with setting a small fire at the Centralia complex where she lived and worked was expected in Lewis County Superior Court this afternoon, but didn’t show up.

Kathrin L. Turner, 44, was charged with first-degree arson and summonsed to appear before a judge this afternoon.

Lewis County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Sara Beigh requested and was granted a $10,000 bench warrant for Turner’s arrest.

One of the tenants from the apartments on the 1100 block of Scammon Creek Road however did go to court for the expected hearing.

“I just don’t get it, I don’t know why she did this,” Shellie Hernandez said. “She was supposed to be our friend.”

Hernandez, 52, has lived in the building almost three years and has a caregiver to help her out. It was her apartment where the fire was set on the exterior wall the morning of Nov. 3, she said.

She wants Turner locked up.

“I fear for my life, I was there for the fire,” she said. “It was so scary.”

Turner is charged only with one count of arson, but the complex saw police and firefighters respond three times in a matter of days at the beginning of last month.

On the morning of Nov. 2, someone lit a paper towel on fire next to a building. A tenant put it out with a glass of water, according to police reports.

The next morning, the fire department was called when a fire broke out within a corridor of the same building, damaging an approximately 15 square foot area of exterior siding. Turner told responders she put it out with a fire extinguisher.

That weekend, Turner was found in the bathroom of a common area of the complex with severe lacerations to her wrists and throat. A box cutter was found after medics took her away, which a Centralia police officer surmised must have been beneath her on the floor.

Eventually police concluded it was a suicide attempt.

Police reports on the incidents state a cleaning wipes container which smelled of gasoline was found in a dumpster at the complex, and officers learned Turner was seen at a gas station getting fuel in a little red can early in the morning before the first fire, and she was seen taking a gas can from the trunk of her car and giving it to the  landscape crew after the second fire.

As police investigated, they learned from a regional manager of the apartments that oddities and discrepancies in the bookkeeping were found. Turner was behind in depositing rent payments and money was possibly missing, Julie Ryan told police, according to one of the reports. Ryan said Turner was trying to move people into apartments that were occupied and that empty units were listed as filled, according to one report.

“She said this wasn’t like Turner to be off on this many rents,” detective Sgt. Carl Buster wrote.

It was more than a week later when detectives were able to speak with Turner, still hospitalized.

At first, Turner had said she was attacked by a stranger.

Detective Panco wrote that after initially denying involvement, Turner confessed. She said it was because she was “so overwhelmed” and the fires were part of the reason she hurt herself, he wrote.

She gave Panco this reason for the fires: She allegedly said she was trying to evict Hernandez from her unit but she wouldn’t leave. She said she’d promised that apartment to someone else, according to charging documents.

“So Turner thought maybe Shellie would move if there was a fire because that would scare Shellie,” Lewis County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Will Halstead wrote.

Her husband Kenneth Turner was interviewed at the hospital while his wife was being treated, before she was transferred to  Tacoma General Hospital.

He told the officer she had been acting odd, talking about a strange black man with a black hat that she kept seeing and was making her nervous, for about the previous two weeks, according to one police report.

When asked if she had ever done anything like this before, he told the officer yes, a few years back when she was overstressed and “basically had a nervous breakdown.”

Kenneth Turner said the things stressing her currently were the arsons, the black man following her and that they were very behind on their bills, unable to pay surgery, hospital and utility bills, Officer Phil Weismiller wrote.

Other parts of the police reports note medical staff telling police of a history of an undiagnosed mental issue and newly discovered blood clots which could have decreased oxygen to her brain and explained bizarre behavior.

First-degree arson is a class A felony with a maximum penalty of life in prison.

After today’s court hearing, Deputy Prosecutor Beigh said she learned Turner was in the hospital, so she was planning to get the arrest warrant rescinded and send a summons for her to appear at a later date.
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For background, read “News brief: Apartment arsons blamed on employee” from Tuesday November 15, 2016, here

The Packwood Fire Department works this morning at a residential structure fire. / Courtesy photo by Derrick Paul

Updated

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A fire investigator is emphasizing the importance of working smoke detectors after a house fire this morning with a fatality in Packwood.

Smoke detectors save lives, Fire Investigator Derrick Paul wrote in all capital letters in a message today.

Paul was called out this morning to the single-family home on the 12900 block of U.S. Highway 12. The Packwood Fire Department responded to the approximately 5:20 a.m. call and found the residence fully engulfed in flames.

When Paul arrived, the blaze was knocked down for the most part, he said. The double-wide modular home is behind the Chevron gas station, he said.

“It’s a complete loss, there’s not a lot left,” he said.

One person was found dead inside, according to Paul.

The Lewis County Coroner’s Office was requested, and a sheriff’s detective joined the fire investigator to assist in processing the scene.

The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office says the 57-year-old man who lives there could not be accounted for and while the identity of the deceased has not been established, they believe it is him.

The cause isn’t yet known, but Paul said he had a couple of leads he was following.

No smoke detectors were found at the home, according to Paul.
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For background, read “News brief: Packwood home catches fire” from Tuesday December 20, 2016, here