Lewis County Sirens.com

Law enforcement officers proceed to dismantle an apparent drug lab on Oxford Avenue in Centralia.

By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CENTRALIA – Authorities aren’t sure who he is but he was jailed last night when police allegedly found a loaded AR15 assault rifle just inside his front door and numerous items including jars of unidentified liquids and a large pile of white powder in his Centralia home.

The man being called Joshua Paul Green was charged today with multiple crimes as law enforcement on Oxford Avenue continued to sift through an amount of chemicals so large, a contractor for the federal Drug Enforcement Administration was called upon to deal with the cleanup.

He says he’s self-employed; he grows coral.

“There’s a lot of chemicals here, a lot that don’t fit, I’m not 100 percent sure what he’s doing,” state Department of Ecologist hazard specialist Doug Stolz said.

Stolz described seeing the usual materials one would find in a methamphetamine lab, such as solvents and glass flasks, but there was also a tank of water with air blowing into it, but without fish, he said.

Green, who is listed by police as 31 years old, was in Lewis County Superior Court this afternoon.

“The state is still not sure Joshua Green is the respondent,” Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Eric Eisenberg told the judge. “We’re still not sure who we’re dealing with.”

According to charging documents, he was arrested and booked earlier this month following a traffic stop in Centralia and gave his information as Jonah Andrew Farrer, 34 years old. His driving status was suspended in Alabama.

He had a loaded .45 caliber Colt pistol in his waistband, but no license to carry the firearm, according to charging documents.

This week, a Centralia officer contacted his girlfriend – who said she has two children with him – and was told his real name is Joshua Green.

An officer who checked with authorities in Alabama learned the Farrer name, birth date and social security number belonged to an individual who died in 2008.

Last night, when Centralia police went to his home to serve a protection order regarding the girlfriend, they got information from 911 dispatch the Colt 45 was stolen, and the victim in that case had five other firearms stolen.

That led to a search warrant.

Today, a pair of firefighters stood by as protection-suited officers collected materials from inside the two-story house on Oxford Avenue.

Part of the electricity had been shut off for safety and fire hoses lay ready, just in case.

On a tarp in the front yard sat gallon cans of Xylene, mason jars, five-gallon buckets and a large glass container half-filled with something brown.

Charging documents list some of the items found inside as numerous pistols, Pyrex dishes with “sludge”, a scale and a used methamphetamine pipe.

The Centralia Police Department hasn’t seen a meth lab in quite some time, according to Public Information Officer John Panco.

They asked teams from the Washington State Patrol and the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department to conduct the examination, Panco said.

Personnel from the Department of Ecology had gone in first to check the air for safety.

Stolz, who had completed that task earlier in the day, said the interior was a mess, with a lot of garbage, many buckets of unidentified substances and even three triple-necked flasks – something illegal for just anyone to own.

The hazard specialist who said he’s been to more than 900 labs or partial labs in his 14 years on the job wondered if the resident was trying to make something he hadn’t seen before, or perhaps testing new “recipes”.

At least two dogs were removed from the home, according to Panco.

Next door neighbor Sharon Mitchell said the clean-shaven young man who moved in about three months earlier isn’t someone who had much company.

She didn’t know if he worked.

“Gosh, he’s a nice guy,” she said. “When I learned what happened, I was amazed.”

His girlfriend told police he travels to Seattle weekly and returns with an abundance of cash; and he gives her money to buy him guns, according to charging documents.

The last official word from police shortly before 3:30 p.m. called the find a possible drug lab.

Green was charged shortly after 4 p.m. today with manufacture of methamphetamine, possession with intent to manufacture or deliver, possession of a stolen firearm and identity theft.

Charging documents described the found materials as “consistent with a methamphetamine lab.”

Deputy Prosecutor Eisenberg asked for bail to be set at $75,000.

Defense attorney Bob Schroeter asked for $10,000.

He’s self-employed, growing coral, but hasn’t made any money from that yet, Schroeter told the judge.

“His assets for the business are not more than $1,000,” Schroeter said.

Judge Nelson Hunt set bail at $250,000.

Green – or Farrer – is scheduled for his arraignment next Thursday.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The real life drama that has played out in Lewis County for more than a decade and peaked last autumn with a coroner’s inquest into the controversial 1998 death in Toledo of former trooper Ronda Reynolds will be told on national television next month.

48 Hours Mystery, CBS’s true crime series will feature a one-hour documentary on the case on April 21 at 10 p.m., according to Reynolds’ mother Barb Thompson.

Inquest witness, 2011

Thompson, who lives in Spokane, got word today from producers of the airing date, and she promptly sent out a message sharing the news for those interested in the story.

“My daughter Ronda Reynolds died Dec. 16, 1998 and finally in October 2011 her death certificate was changed for the last time to homicide,” Thompson wrote.

Reynolds, 33, died with a bullet in her head in the home she shared with husband of less than a year, Toledo Elementary School Principal Ron Reynolds. She was found dead on the floor of a small walk-in closet, covered up by a turned-on electric blanket.

Her death was labeled a suicide and an unconvinced Thompson battled the offices of the sheriff and the coroner and then took the matter to court.

Producers from 48 Hours joined local and regional news media in October at the Lewis County courthouse when new Coroner Warren McLeod held his inquest.

The sheriff’s office admitted to some mistakes, including either the handgun being moved at the scene before photos were taken, or those photos getting lost. Jurors heard about evidence being destroyed or returned too soon.

The inquest jury ruled unanimously the manner of death was homicide and named Ron Reynolds and his son Jonathan as responsible. Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer however declined to bring criminal charges. The father and son deny any involvement.

Thompson said television crews spent four days with her in November and three more days in Spokane earlier this month.

“I know they interviewed Ron and his family once, and went back and did it again a couple weeks ago,” Thompson said this evening.

The widespread attention to the case is not something Thompson expected to ever see.

There was a time when she pestered local newspaper editors to investigate her daughter’s death, and was told no, they don’t report on suicides.

In 2001, she and a good friend of her daughter’s, David Bell, took a trip down to The (Centralia) Chronicle to try once again with its new editor at the time, and succeeded.

“Way back then, we were just hoping to wake up Lewis County,” she said. “That was kind of all we were thinking about; helping people realize there was a problem.”

Thompson said she didn’t think the examination of the case would go on for almost 14 years, or turn into a book by true crime author Ann Rule, let alone a television documentary.

“I’ve got the death certificate that say homicide,” she said. “And that’s what I set out to prove.”

Thompson said she only knows about the parts that were filmed with her, and doesn’t know how the 48 Hours episode will end.

She and her 36-year-old son Freeman will likely watch the show together, just the two of them, she said.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

The publisher of a magazine written for jail inmates has filed a lawsuit against the Lewis County Jail saying its rejection of his publication amounts to a violation of the First Amendment.

The quarterly periodical is free.

Crime, Justice and America says it attempted to arrange delivery to the lock-up facility in Chehalis and were refused, according to its filing in federal court.

Jail Chief Kevin Hanson in his formal answer filed last week denies that his policies unconstitutionally restrict the magazine’s attempt to deliver to inmates or that his jail refused to permit the magazine into the jail.

The suit is filed in U.S. District Court in Tacoma.

It names as defendants Hanson, Sheriff Steve Mansfield who has ultimate decision-making authority over the jail and 20 unnamed employees of the jail.

The magazine describes its target audience as inmates awaiting trial, aiming to educate and inform them about a sometimes confusing criminal justice system.

Crime, Justice and America is distributed free of charge and without a subscription or prior request so jail inmates can receive the information quickly, when they need it, according to information in the magazine’s court filing.

The defendants’ blanket ban on unsolicited publications is exaggerated, not related to a any legitimate penological interest and leaves the magazine with no viable means to communicate with its intended audience, the filed complaint states.

The publisher, Ray Hrdlicka, says it is distributed in numerous counties in Washington, Oregon, California and two other states, according to the filing.

The California-based company says it offered two methods of distribution, either a weekly delivery to be placed in small stacks in common areas or individually addressed to specific inmates but not more than 10 percent of them.

In a document filed last week on behalf of Lewis County Jail Sgt. Julie Frase, Frase states she was the person who the magazine contacted in phone calls in January and February of last year and that they offered no such thing.

Frase wrote they told her they wished to send one copy for every single inmate and they expected the jail to ensure they were individually received.

Jail Chief Hanson says they will accept the magazine, but only in limited quantities and if addressed to specific named inmates.

The inquiry came over a year ago and the jail wasn’t interested, but didn’t violate any law, according to Hanson.

“We reviewed it and due to the volume – they wanted one for every inmate – we said no thanks, we’ll pass,” Hanson said today.

The jail allows reading material inside, as long as it doesn’t jeopardize the safety and security of the facility, Hanson said. And based on the copies of the magazine he’s seen, its content wouldn’t be prohibited, he said.

The plaintiffs specifically allege violations of their rights under the First and Fourteenth amendments of the U.S. Constitution and under Article I, Section 5 of the Washington State Constitution.

They are asking the court for an order to stop violating their rights and damages, partly related to lost advertising, in an amount to be proven at trial.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

A former Winlock-area resident taken into custody following a wild weekend police pursuit has pleaded not guilty to rendering criminal assistance and other offenses related to the aftermath of an Olympia homicide.

Trey Nicholas Jones, 20, was the passenger in a 1999 Kia Sephia that led as many as a dozen patrol vehicles through south Lewis County, as fireworks, full pop cans, duffel bags and a suitcase were tossed from the stolen car, according to authorities.

After the vehicle wrecked on Interstate 5 near Kelso, Jones allegedly admitted that he planned to help the driver – Dwight M. Bradsbery – leave the state following a homicide days earlier in an Olympia apartment, according to charging documents in the case.

He also stated he was injecting methamphetamine during the pursuit, prosecutors allege.

Jones, whose current residence is described by police as “transient”, is being held on $50,000 bail in the Thurston County Jail.

Bradsbery, also 20, is being held on charges of second-degree murder and other related offenses. His bail is set at $250,000. Police say he lives in Olympia.

The pair were arrested March 11 after the wreck.

Detectives from Olympia had been checking around Lewis County since they learned of the homicide the Friday before, according to Olympia police.

One witness lives in Lewis County, the pair had contacts in Centralia and Chehalis, and Jones’ parents live in south Lewis County, according to Olympia Police Department Lt. Jim Costa.

They had gotten information Bradsbery was in the Winlock area earlier that day and asked police there to help find them. Jones grew up in the Winlock area, according to Winlock Police Chief Terry Williams.

According to charging documents, the two were among several individuals at an apartment on Lilly Road in Olympia on the evening of March 8.

The woman who lives in the apartment contacted police early the following day and told of fleeing her home after she saw Bradsbery assault the victim from behind, charging papers state.

The woman, Ajalene Wilson, said she then contacted several other “associates” who had been inside moments before the murder, according to prosecutors.

When Jones was interviewed, he reportedly told police he went inside because he was going to lock the door and keep people out, but instead he supervised the attempted cleanup of the crime scene.

He said he watched, provided direction to others and “masterminded” the cleanup because he was the smartest one, according to prosecutors.

The man police found dead when they went to the apartment is identified as 29-year-old Nathaniel Ollis, an active duty soldier at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. He is from Maine and died from multiple stab and slash wounds, according to the Thurston County Coroner.

Charging documents in the case don’t indicate a motive.

Both Bradsbery and Jones reportedly admitted stealing the car from a female friend in Olympia.

Jones is charged with first-degree rendering criminal assistance and tampering with evidence.

Both men are charged with car theft, attempting to elude and related crimes.

They are scheduled to appear next in Thurston County Superior Court on April 9.

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Read “Read about police chase through Lewis County …” from Sunday March 11, 2012 at 6:48 p.m., here