Lewis County Sirens.com

Updated at 11:45 a.m.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The Lewis County Coroner’s Office says an autopsy conducted yesterday found that 28-year-old Travis Shive died of massive internal bleeding from a gunshot wound, described as entering his abdomen and traveling into his chest without exiting his body.

The Salkum resident was shot twice, by a neighbor on Saturday night, according to the sheriff’s office.

The 56-year-old neighbor man who has not been arrested admitted he armed himself with a .380 semi-automatic handgun and said he went outside to get Shive to leave his property.

The unnamed man told deputies he felt threatened because Shive had been on his front porch ranting, accusing him of shooting his dog and refused to leave.

The sheriff’s office says it learned a fight took place in the yard after Shive, who was unarmed, lunged at the older man and then he was shot.

Shive was transported to Providence Centralia Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office has said the shooter is cooperating with the investigation, and said they were awaiting the results of the autopsy.

This morning, the sheriff’s office indicated detectives now want to answer the question of the proximity of the shooter to Shive when the firearm was discharged.

They are sending Shive’s clothing to the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab to be examined, according to Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown.

Brown said both shots were from front to back, not in the back as two of several witnesses reported.

Coroner Warren McLeod said the other shot struck Shive in his left shoulder.

It happened about 8:10 p.m. on Saturday at the 200 block of Stowell Road, about a half block from the Salkum Super market.

Responding firefighters were told to wait at their station until deputies arrived to make sure the scene was safe.

Fire Chief Duran McDaniel estimated he stayed parked at the neighborhood store perhaps seven minutes, before he was given the okay to come in, something that was tough to do as a person lay injured.

Shive was able to walk off the property and was in the front yard of another property where bystanders were performing CPR.

The coroner said this morning the delay didn’t play a role in Shive’s death, the internal bleeding was so serious.

“Even if the medics got there (immediately) there is nothing, that I’m aware of, they can do all that much to stem the bleeding out in the field,” McLeod said.

Brown this morning indicated the investigation could take some time; such as getting the test results back because of a backlog at the state crime lab.

She said detectives learned the 56-year-old never opened his front door while Shive was there yelling, as he had it duct taped closed in connection with some kind of repair or renovation.

According to Brown, the man exited through a back or side door into the yard to see what was happening, and then the confrontation occurred.

The sheriff’s office believes Shive went to the man’s house in error, thinking it was he who shot the dog.

Detectives are still looking into who did it, as part of their inquiry, but Brown didn’t have high expectations they would find that out.

“I don’t know that person will ever come forward, at this point,” she said. “I don’t know that we’ll ever know.”

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CORRECTION: This news story has been updated to clarify the 56-year-old resident never opened the front door, and only left his house one time to meet up with Shive in his yard, according to the sheriff’s office.

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For background, read “Deadly dispute over dog shooting still under investigation in Salkum” from Monday May 12, 2014, here

Updated at 3:19 p.m.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

A clerk working alone at the Grand Mound AM/PM store was frightened but otherwise unharmed when she was robbed at gunpoint last night.

Deputies headed to the business about 11:40 p.m. after at least twice someone called 911 from there but hung up without speaking, according to the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office.

A dispatcher finally made contact with the employee who reported what occurred, Sgt. Ray Brady said.

“She said she did that because she wasn’t sure if he was going to come back, and she was so scared,” Brady said.

Brady said the the 36-year-old Rochester resident was in a back room when a man wearing dark clothing and a red bandana over his face came inside pointing a handgun toward her. And he aimed it at her back as she retrieved money he demanded, according to Brady.

He then left and headed south toward the parking lot at Key Bank, according to the sheriff’s office. Deputies suspect a vehicle may have been staged there, as that’s where a police dog track ended, according to Brady.

The store and gas station sits at the intersection of U.S. Highway 12 and Old Highway 99 not far from Interstate 5.

Detectives today are working the case, and in contact with Tumwater police who are investigating a similar incident earlier in the evening farther north along the I-5 corridor, Brady said.

A Chevron store was robbed by a male wearing a red bandana over his face just before 8 p.m. at Trosper Road near Little Rock Road, according to police.  He fled the store and was picked up by a female in a green Jeep Cherokee, police said.

Tumwater’s subject is described as about 6-feet tall with a medium build, wearing a black hoodie, black baggie pants and blue high-top tennis shoes and as having a dark complexion, according to the Tumwater Police Department.

The Grand Mound clerk thought her robber was a white male adult and said he was wearing dark clothing, and a red or maroon baseball-type cap, Brady said, along with the bandana over his face.

The same store was just robbed in December, by a pony-tailed woman who threatened to shoot a clerk. A 20-year-old Montesano woman was arrested days later in that case.

Brady said the clerk last night did the right things.

“That’s what they teach employees, to cooperate and just be a good witness,” he said.

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CORRECTION: This story has been updated to reflect the correct time police were called to the robbery in Tumwater.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Former used car dealer Keith Birdwell yesterday admitted he wrote thousands of dollars worth of bad checks to Security State Bank and didn’t pay back loans to the Centralia-based financial institution, the first step in a plea deal to avoid a potential lengthy prison term.

Birdwell, 48, and his wife were charged early last year in Lewis County Superior Court with theft, for allegedly using various deceptions to dodge repaying what they owed for the vehicles at Birdwell Auto Sales in Centralia and their lot in Lacey. Both businesses are now closed.

The criminal case came out of a lengthy investigation by the Centralia Police Department, with losses claimed by the bank of more than $1 million.

Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Eric Eisenberg said if Birdwell pays off a certain amount of what he owes before a sentencing hearing scheduled in July, Eisenberg will recommend to the judge a 12-month sentence.

The amount agreed upon by the deadline is known only to the parties involved, according to Eisenberg.

The Toledo couple was charged originally with first-degree theft, as well as multiple counts of unlawful issuance of a bank check, all with special allegations the actions were major economic offenses with a high degree of sophistication, meaning if convicted, a possible penalty of 10 years in prison and / or a $20,000 fine.

Eisenberg said the reasons prosecutors made a deal instead of taking the case to trial will be easier to explain this summer, when they are back in court.

“(This) gets some of the punishment I wanted and it gets something for the bank,” he said.

Security State Bank was involved in the process and satisfied with the arrangement he said.

Tacoma-based defense attorney Keith McFie had little to say; only that his client pleaded guilty and will be sentenced on July 2.

Birdwell and his wife Lorrine D. Birdwell, 45, have been free on signature bonds since the beginning, although they did have to visit the jail to get their photos and fingerprints taken.

The circumstances involved a form of a line of credit with the bank, in which the unsold vehicles at the car lots were used as collateral for loans, and a day in July 2012 when a bank employee discovered 21 vehicles were unaccounted for, according to charging documents.

After an inquiry by phone from the bank’s president, Keith Birdwell allegedly over a period of three days wrote checks from their Twin Star Credit Union account to their Security State account. The first one was for $29,750, all but one of the others were larger.

The checks didn’t clear. Keith Birdwell indicated to police he expected them to be covered by a loan from an associate.

All but the one charge for first-degree theft have been dismissed in Lorrine D. Birdwell’s case. Lawyers are reportedly working on a plea deal with her which is tied to her husband’s.

Birdwell yesterday pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree theft and three counts of felony unlawful issuance of a bank check.

Eisenberg yesterday told the judge he expects to dismiss two remaining counts of unlawful issuance of a bank check at the sentencing hearing, if Birdwell has kept his end of the bargain.

If not, and Birdwell were convicted on all the counts, along with the so-called aggravators, the standard sentencing range is 14 to 18 months in prison, however the judge would be free to hand down as much as the maximum of a decade, according to Eisenberg.

Eisenberg said he’s not certain what may happen if the agreed upon amount is not repaid by then, except he noted he and McFie did have an alternate agreement they’d discussed.

He said he understands Birdwell is working, doing some kind of freelance auto sales.

Still to be determined is the total amount of restitution owed, an amount which is in dispute, he said.

Which portion which came from criminal behavior and how much came about simply because the business was doing poorly will have to be decided by a judge later on, according to Eisenberg.

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For background, read “Centralia used car lot owners appear in court on criminal charges” from Wednesday January 23, 2013, here