Lewis County Sirens.com

Tom Potter of Pe Ell checks out the 1941 biplane that nearly killed its pilot earlier today.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – An 85-year-old man was run over by a plane today at the Chehalis-Centralia Airport.

Firefighters called just after 3 p.m. said the small rear wheel ran over his chest after he was knocked to the ground when the plane started up and circled around on the ground.

Getting run over was bad, but it could have been so much worse.

The open cockpit biplane built in 1941 by Boeing has a shiny silver propeller that stretches roughly 10 feet from end to end, nearly reaching the ground.

“I kept telling him to stay down,” said Merrill Stulken, an Alaska resident who was at the airport fueling up his plane.

The plane shouldn’t have started up, but it did, according to Stulken.

“If he’d have put his head up, he’d be gone,” Stulken’s brother-in-law Tom Potter of Pe Ell said.

The plane circled over the man four times and then stopped, according to Stulken.

“God intervened,” Stulken said, calling the outcome of the accident a miracle. “I honestly thought I was gonna to see a man be killed,” he said.

It’s a mystery what happened, according to Stulken.

Stulken was getting ready to take a flight over Mount St. Helens, Mount Rainier and his farm in Boistfort, he said.

The pilot had a dead battery and asked him for help, he said. They were contemplating getting it going by cranking the propeller by hand.

The plane was parked, and shut off, he said. The fuel was off and before the pilot got in the cockpit, the two men rotated the propeller about one-third of a turn to check it out, Stulken said.

That’s when it started prematurely, he said.

The pilot, from Lakewood, was taken to Providence Centralia Hospital with a cut to the back of his head.

Chehalis Fire Department Capt. Pat Gilligan said his injuries must not have been too bad, because they got a phone call from the hospital within hours telling them he was headed in a taxi back to the airport to fly home.

The fire department didn’t release the injured man’s name, but the plane is registered to John Dimmer in Tacoma. The hospital said a John Dimmer was treated and has been released.

Stulken and his brother-in-law were back at the airport later this evening, surprised to hear the pilot planned to fly tonight. The plane was still parked however and the injured man wasn’t there.

Stulken estimated the tail of the aircraft weighed 500 to 1,000 pounds.

“He’s got true grit, he’s a tough old bugger,” Stulken said.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A 23-year-old Centralia resident is being held on $500,000 bail following his arrest for allegedly taking pictures with a cell phone of himself having sex with a 14-year-old girl.

The incident came to light when his ex-girlfriend contacted authorities, saying he returned her cell phone to her with the explicit images on it.

Jonathan M. Margart went before a judge in Lewis County Superior Court in Chehalis yesterday afternoon charged with two felonies.

Defense attorney Bob Schroeter said he didn’t argue for a lower bail amount, leaving that for the attorney who would subsequently be appointed to represent Margart.

He said his temporary client was a hard working guy, employed at both Ayala Brothers Furniture and Carls Jr. restaurant.

According to the allegations outlined in the charging documents, Margart befriended a local middle school girl on Facebook, they talked on the phone a time or two and once met up at Fort Borst Park in Centralia.

The girl told a Centralia police detective they met on a recent Saturday and went to McDonalds, to the Outlet Mall and then Margart got a room at Motel 6, according to charging documents.

He left and returned with a fifth of Bacardi rum and his friends visited him periodically throughout the evening, the documents state.

The teenager told the detective she was intoxicated but recalled him holding his cell phone while they were engaged in sex, although she thought it was in the “flashlight mode,” charging documents state.

The girl said she allowed him to take one picture of her naked, but would not have agreed to photos during sex, according to charging documents.

She said she told Margart she was 14; when interviewed, he told the detective she said she was 18, according to charging documents.

Margart told the detective the girl was drunk and it was the girl who suggested he film her, according to the documents.

Margart was was jailed last week by his community corrections officer for violating the conditions of his parole by being in the company of a minor.

He was charged yesterday with sexual exploitation of a minor as well as third-degree rape of a child.

The exploitation is punishable by a maximum of 10 years in prison. It’s related to causing a person under 18 to engage in sexually explicit conduct knowing the act will be photographed or part of a live performance.

The rape charge carries a maximum penalty of five years, and is based only upon the age difference between the two parties; a victim who is age 14 or 15 and a perpetrator who is at least 48 months older.

Margart’s criminal history includes convictions when he was 19 years old for third-degree child molestation and second-degree child molestation, according to court documents.

His chance to make his plea will come at his arraignment, scheduled for next Thursday.

Small fires set inside the empty Symons warehouse didn’t harm the building.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CENTRALIA – Authorities don’t believe last night’s fire set inside a vacant warehouse in a Centralia neighborhood is connected to a string of arsons last month, but they still want to find out who lit it.

Firefighters called about 7:30 p.m. to a report of smoke coming from the large brick-sided building found a fire small enough they put it out with a portable extinguisher.

It was in the center of the structure, fueled by books and other items assembled from the facility, Riverside Fire Authority Assistant Chief Rick Mack said.

There was actually more than one fire set, but all were on the concrete portion of the floor and none caused any structural damage, he said.

Mack said it didn’t seem as though someone was trying to destroy the building. It could have been devastating if that happened, he said.

“But still, that’s not okay,” he said.

Neighbors call it the cannery, but Mack described it as a cold storage warehouse.

It takes up a city block in between F and G streets and Fourth and Fifth streets.

One of the reasons authorities aren’t linking last night’s incident to the five fires in May is none of those buildings were entered, Mack said.

In a three-hour span during the early morning hours of May 3, fire crews were called to two churches, a coffee stand and Centerville, the western store at the north end of the Centralia Outlets. After daylight, they learned of a failed attempt at a third church.

Longtime area resident Hazel Ragan recalls the now vacant warehouse once was owned by Ocean Spray and last belonged to Symons Frozen Foods. Ryan Rayburn who lives across the street said it a busy operation until about two years ago.

“Squatters probably, that what I figured it was,” Rayburn said. “Squatters in there using the vents for a chimney.”

Police are working with Mack, who is the city’s fire investigator. They don’t have any suspects yet, he said this afternoon.

“We did recover some evidence from the fire,” Mack said. “We’ll be using that as we move forward.”

Mack is asking anyone who saw anyone in the area before the fire to please contact him or the Centralia Police Department.

••

For background, read: “Early May north Centralia church fire could also be arson, officials now say” from Monday May 20, 2013, here

Lonzo W. Lawson II, left, listens to a deputy prosecutor accuse him of making off with thousands of dollars in a nighttime burglary.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office argued to a jury yesterday that the nearly $15,000 cash stolen in a break-in to a Napavine tavern earlier this spring was taken by a 37-year-old homeless man who pedaled seven miles on a bicycle to commit the burglary.

Lonzo W. Lawson II is charged with multiple offenses in connection with the April 9 hit on Frosty’s Saloon and Grill on West Front Street.

Jurors heard testimony the building had no alarm system and that the safe’s combination was written on a shelf near it.

Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Shane O’Rourke said Lawson learned from a cell mate in the Lewis County Jail, a Frosty’s employee, what an easy target the business would be.

O’Rourke contended Lawson told two buddies what he was going to do and returned with wads of cash which they spent on partying.

“A quick and easy pay day fell into Mr. Lawson’s lap, and he took it, O’Rourke said.

Lawson was arrested on April 12 at a Chehalis motel room, three days after the burglary. His trial in Lewis County Superior Court could last until early next week. Judge James Lawler is presiding.

O’Rourke told jurors the “cherry on top” of his case is the DNA found on a hat at the scene that matches the defendant.

The owner Gina Allen testified she did her usual bookwork on a Sunday, making sure to leave enough cash on hand for her next two days off, and also was getting ready to pay the property taxes.

Defense attorney Don Blair addressed the jury yesterday afternoon as well, suggesting there may be reason to think someone else was the culprit.

Blair told jurors they would learn a phone call the evening before asking what time the bar closed came from one of the buddy’s phones. And that friend is a drug dealer, a burglar, a thief and an informant, who wanted to get back at his client, Blair said.

“Some of what the state told you, we don’t disagree with,” Blair said.

He went on to repeat that the Frosty’s employee did talk while at the jail about how simple it would be to burglarize his workplace, but the conversations involved several inmates, he said.

“Frosty’s was an easy mark,” Blair said. “So it was a group over time he was talking to. He wasn’t just talking to Mr. Lawson.”

Lawson is charged with first-degree burglary, first-degree theft and possession of heroin and meth as well as two counts of trafficking in stolen property for allegedly sharing some of the loot with his friends.

Allen has since installed a security system at her business.