Lewis County Sirens.com

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Notice was forwarded today to the state Court of Appeals that Ricky A. Riffe is contesting everything about his conviction for the 1985 slaying of Ed and Minnie Maurin, the elderly couple found dead on a logging road outside Adna days after vanishing from their Ethel farmhouse.

Riffe, 55, was condemned to nearly 103 years in prison following his autumn trial in Lewis County Superior Court.

Ricky A. Riffe

The former Mossyrock man who was extradited from his longtime home in King Salmon, Alaska finding himself accused in the nearly 30-year-old case remains in the Lewis County Jail, but has otherwise virtually “checked out” since a jury in November found him guilty as charged of kidnapping, robbery and murder.

At his sentencing last month, the man who had been escorted to court each day previously in slacks and sweaters appeared unshaven and directed his attorney not to make any recommendation on his behalf. Riffe maintains he has nothing to apologize for regarding the case.

He declined to attend a proceeding yesterday in which a judge was asked to determine how much restitution he owed the victims’ families.

Lewis County Superior Court Judge Richard Brosey signed an order presented by prosecutors that Riffe should repay the $8,500 he was convicted of taking from the Maurins, plus their funeral expenses of roughly $5,450. His lawyer’s signature was noted on the document as approved telephonically.

That amount is on top of the more than $13,000 in legal financial obligations the judge attached to Riffe’s judgement and sentence back in December, fees and other amounts such as $100 to collect his DNA, $1,000 for his jail stay and more than $8,600 prosecutors spent to bring in their numerous witnesses.

He was even assessed $192 for food and his oxygen along with the airfare for returning him to Lewis County in July 2012. He apparently suffers from COPD.

The grand total, according to court documents, is $27,355, plus 4 cents.

Riffe is expected to begin paying off the debt in February, at a rate of $25 per month.

Also yesterday, a date was set of Jan. 16 for a review of his pending trial for another new old case. Early last year, while he was in the jail waiting for his murder trial, prosecutors filed charges for child rape and molestation, related to incidents which were alleged and investigated in the mid-1980s regarding his then step-daughter.

That trial is currently scheduled for next month.

Riffe has denied any sexual contact, according to charging documents. Prosecutors and his defense attorney disagree as to whether the statute of limitations has passed.

It’s because of the pending trial, Riffe remains held in the Lewis County Jail, and has not yet been transferred to prison, according to Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer.

The 1985 deaths of the Maurins, who were in their early 80s, was described by Meyer as the most heinous crime he had seen in his career.

During a six-week trial, he and Senior Deputy Prosecutor Will Halstead presented information that indicated someone forced the couple from their home, made them drive to their bank in Chehalis to empty out an account and then out to Stearns Hill Road, where they were shot in the backs, each with one shotgun blast.

An eyewitness who didn’t come forward until 2003 testified that he briefly saw Ricky and John Gregory Riffe inside the Maurin’s Chrysler Newport with the couple on U.S. Highway 12 and that his life was subsequently threatened by the now-deceased younger brother. A former drug dealer who took the stand told of a time almost 28 years earlier when the Riffe brothers seemingly bragged they’d gotten away with it.

Riffe was convicted as the principal or an accomplice, in the case in which prosecutors at the end revealed they believed may have involved more perpetrators than just the two brothers.

Seattle-based defense attorney John Crowley argued there was no real evidence against his client, and it was fear and rumor that led to the accusations.

Crowley insisted that at least 10 individuals who were called to testify made wholesale changes from their original statements to police and that the jury heard knowingly perjured testimony in one instance.

On Monday, as the 30-day deadline approached, Crowley filed a notice of appeal, stating that his client appeals his conviction, his sentence, his trial, the judgement and all pre-trial matters relating to the case.
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For background, read “Riffe maintains innocence in face of sentence of more than a century for Maurin murders” from Tuesday December 3, 2013, here

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Who knew Lewis County was home to so many hoping to launch marijuana operations in a building they don’t own or lease?

Numerous entities have applied for licenses to grow and process cannabis, all at a soon-to-be vacant warehouse in the Chehalis Industrial Park.

It’s the old Circuit CIty building, a nearly 173,000-square-foot facility at 208 Maurin Road.

“I don’t believe the board’s aware of it,” Port of Chehalis interim commissioner Dave Muller said last week.

The Port’s board of commissioners probably wouldn’t take a position on such such an endeavor, but they focus mainly on dealing with those who want to purchase property – not rent –  in the area anyhow, Muller said.

The warehouse in question is owned by CC Properties LLC, doing business as Chehalis LLC based in Des Moines, Iowa.

It’s a big investment group, according to the real estate agent who for years has been trying to sell it, and has managed its leasing in the meantime.

Vanessa Herzog, of Kidder-Mathews, said it’s news to her that there are more than 16 applicants who have told the Washington State Liquor Control Board they are based at 208 Maurin Road.

“It makes me really angry, whoever it is that submitted that,” Herzog said.

Herzog said she wasn’t entirely surprised however, it’s happened to her at least once already elsewhere, when she learned someone claimed they were opening a marijuana business in a location she managed in Lacey.

Locally, applicants with names such as Emerald Joy and Evergreen Trees are among the thousands attempting to get approved to cultivate, process and sell recreational marijuana in Washington following the passage of last year’s Initiative 502.

A 30-day window for applying closed last month and the WSLCB says it’s expects to begin issuing licenses in the next month or so.

WSLCB spokesperson Mikhail Carpenter says they are aware of the practice, that some folks have submitted addresses for buildings they don’t actually have control over.

“The licensing process is going to sort a lot of that out,” he said yesterday.

Investigators will conduct site visits and contact landlords for verifications before any are approved, according to Carpenter.

Carpenter said he suspects some are people who are scrambling, afraid they would be left out of the process.

The former Circuit CIty warehouse remains for sale, now listed at $6.25 million, according to Herzog. Cardinal Glass’s lease is expiring soon, she said.

Nobody has approached her to buy or lease it for a marijuana operation, she said last week.

“I was happy nobody had called me, because I didn’t want to deal with it,” Herzog said.

She said she’s put together leases already for marijuana businesses elsewhere, but she’s not that enthusiastic about doing it again, as it’s complicated.

Herzog couldn’t say with certainty that no one has been talking directly with the actual owners.

But it’s unlikely an owner such as a large investment group would be eager to get involved, she said, citing issues with banking and investment rules given that marijuana is still illegal under federal law.

Dick Larman, executive director of the Lewis County Economic Development Council, said they have been besieged by people wanting to know about buying, renting or leasing buildings in the county for marijuana businesses.

But they too are not anxious to help promote the coming new industry.

Their stance is in line with the county government’s position, if someone can get the federal authorities to approve, then they would, he said.

He wasn’t aware of anyone moving in to the former Circuit City warehouse or anywhere in the industrial park, he said.

“I don’t know that anyone closed a deal,” Larman said. “It’s a fairly high bar.”

The list of those seeking licenses from the state published by the WSLCB contains business names, and locations but no phone numbers or contact information for the applicants.

The Chehalis Industrial Park, south of Chehalis and just east of Interstate 5, is situated in an urban growth area.

The city and the county have an agreement about which of the two are responsible for issuing building permits – that would be Chehalis, according to Dennis Osborn, the city’s community development director

As for business licenses, Osborn said he believes that would be up to the county.

“It’s a great question,” Osborn said yesterday.

It’s an issue the city will be taking up with legal counsel, he said.

Both have moratoriums currently in place regarding the marijuana industry.
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For background, read “Marijuana central could be Chehalis Industrial Park” from Tuesday December 24, 2013, here