Lewis County Sirens.com

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By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Two individuals were brought before a  judge this afternoon in connection with alleged cocaine dealing, following their arrests by drug detectives in the Grand Mound area

Eighteen-year-old Leonardo A. Flores-Martinez is charged with twice selling to a confidential informant.

He lives with his parents in Rochester and told police he was born into the Surreno gang, according to court documents.

When the home of 32-year-old Esteban A. Vasquez III was searched yesterday, law enforcement officers allegedly found  in a shirt in his closet a digital scale and approximately 15 grams of cocaine, charging documents state. A loaded Glock was also removed from his closet, according to prosecutors.

The arrests came yesterday after Lewis County’s Joint Narcotics Enforcement Team served a search warrant at Vasquez’s Grand Mound home.

Flores-Martinez was contacted outside, taken into custody and allegedly confessed that was the residence where he got his supply.

Vasquez was not home, but voluntarily returned to the scene, Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Paul Masiello told a judge this afternoon.

“He was informed what law enforcement discovered and nodded his head in affirmation,” Masiello wrote in court documents.

Vasquez was charged today in Lewis County Superior Court with one count of possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver. Because he has a prior felony conviction, he was also charged with second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm.

Charging documents state detectives found indications of gang affiliation in his bedroom.

Defense attorney Joely O’Rourke told the judge Vasquez grew up in Centralia and has strong community ties. He’s currently working at a Lacey mattress manufacturer and has been there for three years, she said in seeking his release on a $10,000 unsecured bond.

Flores-Martinez was charged with two counts of delivery of a controlled substance – for instances between March 1 and yesterday – and one count of possession of methamphetamine, for what was retrieved from his pocket yesterday.

He’s unemployed and has a recent case from March 22 of possession of a controlled substance as well as driving under the influence, the two lawyers said.

Judge Richard Brosey set his bail at $25,000.

While court documents show both men with Rochester mailing addresses, charging papers state the various offenses all occurred in Lewis County.

Their arraignments were scheduled for next Thursday.

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The 25-year-old who stowed himself away beneath a big rig to escape from a deputy last month and was finally apprehended in Centralia, even trying to run after he was handcuffed, was scheduled for his arraignment today.

Lewis County resident Ruben A. Inman is charged with one offense that he allegedly has been trying to avoid since March 3.

Ruben A. Inman

Inman was released from prison in mid-January and placed on community custody.

He reported to the Chehalis office of the state Department of Corrections on March 3 as directed, but when he was ordered to provide a urine sample, he said he couldn’t do it, went to get a drink of water and never came back, according to court documents.

A secretary’s DOC warrant was issued for his arrest, for the felony of escape from community custody. That’s willfully discontinuing making himself available for post-release supervision.

The former Twin Cities resident made headlines after the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office told of an encounter at  Gee Cees truck stop near Vader on March 11.

A sheriff’s deputy was following up on a trespassing complaint in the area and located Inman and a female at Gee Cees, but Inman slipped away and vanished.

A truck driver said he’d seen the male crawl under the trailer of semi truck and it left with him still beneath it. Security footage confirmed what happened and when the truck was finally stopped in Arlington, its driver didn’t locate his hitchhiker but did find his cap.

His daring feat was featured on the television show Washingon’s Most Wanted.

On March 15, Inman left a voice mail message with his community corrections saying he wanted to turn himself in. He was upset his escape was on the news and wanted to know why he was getting so much attention for a warrant, according to court papers.

He didn’t leave  call back number.

On April 6, law enforcement officers went to a residence at the north end of Centralia to find Inman, and he reportedly fled on foot, and then after he was cuffed, tried again to flee.

He was booked into the Lewis County Jail.

Prosecutors declined to charge Inman with escape for that incident. But, on Tuesday, they filed the escape from community custody charge, for walking away from his supervision appointment. His bail was set at $35,000.

It’s a class C felony with a maximum penalty of five years in prison. For hiding out from his DOC supervisors over a urine test.

The charging documents in his case don’t make mention of what Inman was in prison for, but it couldn’t have been a very long term.

A look into the archives of Lewis County Sirens .com shows two incidents from four years ago, when an individual by the same name attempted to elude officers.

JULY 31, 2012: “A short foot pursuit of an individual wanted in connection with vehicle theft ended with the arrest about 10:20 p.m. yesterday of Ruben A. Inman, 21, of Centralia.”

SEPT. 25, 2012: “A 21-year-old arrested yesterday for a warrant after a foot pursuit in the area of Northwest Prindle Street reportedly kicked out a back window of a patrol vehicle, climbed out and ran away again. “He was again apprehended, put back in the patrol car and then booked into jail.”
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For background, read “News brief: Daring escapee apprehended in Centralia” from Thursday April 7, 2016, here

Thomas L. Pleasant is sentenced today in Lewis County Superior Court.

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – For the second time in his life, a former Centralia man has been sentenced to life in prison.

Thomas L. Pleasant, 50, went before a judge today in Lewis County Superior Court, having pleaded guilty last month to first-degree robbery and second-degree assault for what took place at the Chehalis Subway store late one night in the summer of 2008.

It was a third strike case with a mandatory punishment neither the prosecutor or defense attorney disputed.

Judge Richard Brosey agreed Pleasant’s 1989 conviction  for first-degree robbery in Pierce County and a Colorado conviction for assaulting an officer with a deadly weapon counted as strikes one and two.

“You’re sentenced to the state Department of Corrections for the rest of your natural life, without the possibility of release or parole,” Brosey told the defendant.

Pleasant readily admitted to a string of robberies that summer, and by the end of 2008, was convicted of three first-degree robberies in Cowlitz County and sent off to prison for life, under the same persistent offender law.

Lewis County detectives interviewed him before he left and charges were filed in Lewis County for the July 16, 2008 holdup of the lone female employee at the shop in the Twin City Town Center. The charges were first-degree robbery and first-degree rape.

He admitted robbing her with a pellet gun that looked real, tying her up with an electrical cord and putting her in a walk-in cooler. When she was interviewed, she told of the same events, along with him asking her if she wanted to live and then with a gun to her back, raping her, according to court documents.

Pleasant denied the rape in 2008 and again today.

Lewis County Senior Prosecuting Attorney Will Halstead and Centralia defense attorney Don Blair struck a plea deal, agreeing the rape charge would be dismissed for “evidentiary reasons”.

Blair addressed the court this afternoon, and said his client’s DNA was not present, but other males’ DNA was. Judge Brosey said he understood the Chehalis Police Department no longer had the evidence for the case.

“We believe we would have prevailed on that count,” Blair said.

Pleasant accepted the judge’s offer to speak on his own behalf and told him he was willing to accept the consequences.

“It is what it is,” Pleasant said. “I don’t know why the person said what she said.

“I know I went in, I robbed her, tied her up and put her in the cooler; that was it.”

Halstead told the judge he’d met with the victim as recently as Monday, and believed she now understood why he amended the charges downward.

He read a letter from the victim, who was not named. “She’s adamant she was raped,” he said.

“To whom it may concern: I have to live with what happened to me every day

“I never asked to be robbed at gunpoint, raped and put in a cooler.”

She continued on how she would have liked to stand up to her attacker at trial, but that was taken from her.

“What does that say about the Lewis County court system,” Halstead read. “About the Chehalis Police Department?”

Chehalis Police Chief Glenn Schaffer this afternoon said the evidence was not lost, it was destroyed and he’s not sure exactly where along the line the case came apart.

The department keeps case evidence in a vault and periodically gets rid of or returns what they don’t need any longer, he said.

The department routinely checks with the prosecutor’s office before taking such actions though, according to Schaffer.

“We sent a note and the prosecutor’s office checked off on it,” he said.

Schaffer said he wasn’t certain at this point if his department erred in making the request, or if the prosecutor’s office erred in approving it.

“I’m not looking to place any blame, I don’t know,” he said.
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For background, read “Suspect from 2008 Subway robbery initiated reopening his case” from Monday March 7, 2016, here

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Convicted killer John A. Booth Jr. will be back in Lewis County next month, when a judge will hear his contention eavesdropping on inmates in the jail was governmental misconduct and jeopardized his rights to confidential communications with his lawyers.

The former Onalaskan was sentenced to life in prison for the August 2010 shootings at the home of 52-year-old David West Sr., from whom prosecutors contended Booth was seeking payment of a debt for a local drug dealer.

John A. Booth Jr.

Booth was 31 years old when he was arrested for the slayings of three people, and wounding of a fourth person at the residence on Wings Way, off of Gore Road.

He’s lost his appeal, he’s lost his personal restraint petition and the upcoming hearing grows out of his December 2012 motion to vacate the judgement and sentence based on court rule 7.8.

He is represented by court assigned defense attorney Erik Kupka.

Kupka and Lewis County Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecutor Brad Meagher went before Lewis County Superior Court Judge RIchard Brosey this afternoon.

Booth and Kupka have requested various documents from the state to prepare for the hearing, and today Meagher told the judge his position is all information required to be turned over has been turned over.

Judge Brosey said he was denying any further requests for materials related to Booth’s request, noting his attorney would presumably make requests as he sees fit.

Four of the many individuals from the sheriff’s office expected at the May hearing have pre-paid planned vacations, according to Meagher.

Judge Brosey indicated they should be excused from the May 2 and May 3 proceedings, and if their testimony is still needed, the proceedings can reconvene when they return.

Booth was sentenced under the state’s so-called three strikes law.

Losing their lives on Aug. 21, 2010, along with West Sr., were 16-year-old David “D.J.” West Jr. and 50-year-old Tony Williams of Randle. West Sr.’s girlfriend, Denise Salts, survived a gunshot wound to her face

Booth denied shooting them.
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For background, read “”Ear hustling”: Convicted murderer John Booth tells judge about problems at Lewis County Jail” from Friday July 5, 2013, here