Lewis County Sirens.com

James M. Reeder is escorted out of court and back down to the jail.

Updated at 11:37 p.m.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Prosecutors told a judge this afternoon they believe a Centralia toddler was raped and tortured before she died.

James M. Reeder, 25, appeared before a judge in Lewis County Superior Court this afternoon. He is the mother’s live-in boyfriend.

Reeder was not charged, but was ordered held on probable cause for murder, child rape and assault.

Koralynn Fister, 2, was pronounced dead at Providence Centralia Hospital yesterday after Reeder carried her to a house across the street and said he found her face down in the bathtub after he stepped out to get a towel. He was arrested last night.

Koralynn Fister

Defense attorney Bob Schroeter said his client absolutely and positively denies the allegations and has no history of any felony.

The judge ordered the Centralia resident held on $5 million bail.

Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer requested a 72-hour hold on Reeder to allow more time for investigation and a final charging decision.

The filed declaration of probable cause describes significant bruising, cuts, abrasions and other wounds found on the child’s body, some in more advanced stages of healing than others.

Among the injuries noted were palm-sized pieces of skin missing from her buttocks, caused according to forensic evaluation, by traumatic injuries inflicted upon the child.

The declaration also mentions missing skin on the top and bottom of a toe, but offers no specific explanation for how any wounds were inflicted.

The pathologist’s examination found four distinct areas of head trauma, according to the declaration. Lewis County Coroner Warren McLeod said earlier today Koralynn died from that and drowning.

Prosecutor Meyer indicated in his filing he believed probable cause existed for at least two counts of rape and assault.

Meyer’s declaration says none of the injuries were noted in a well-child exam conducted in early April and that Reeder has been living with the mother and her two daughters for about 10 weeks.

The prosecutor wrote that Reeder persuaded the mother about a month ago  to divide up parenting duties and would insist when the mother left, she take the oldest daughter with her, leaving him time alone with the toddler.

A passage in the declaration includes Reeder telling police the bath began shortly after the mother and older child left the residence at about 12:30 p.m., and neighbors reporting it was around 3:15 p.m. when Reeder was beating on their door, holding the girl and yelling for help.

The fire department was called at 3:09 p.m.

The neighbors said Reeder did CPR on their porch until aid arrived. A witness indicated the child was cold to the touch, according to the declaration.

Centralia Police Department Officer Gary Byrnes noticed the smell of burnt marijuana inside the house, the declaration states.

When Prosecutor Meyer asked for high bail, he said Reeder was a danger to others, even the mother.

“I won’t go into graphic detail, but suffice it to say, that in my career this is the worst case of child abuse and neglect that I have seen,” Meyer said.

Defense attorney Schroeter asked for reasonable bail, pointed out to the judge a row of Reeder’s family members sitting in the back of the courtroom.

“Nobody is more distraught about this situation than Mr. Reeder,” Schroeter said.

“All indications are one person took positive action on behalf of this child,” he said. “And that is Mr. Reeder.”

Judge Richard Brosey granted prosecutor’s request to return Reeder to the courtroom on Tuesday afternoon.

Police today continued searching the house off of West Oakview Avenue.

The 4-year-old half sister has been taken into temporary protective custody.

The state Department of Social and Health Services Children’s Administration issued a statement saying they have no record of history involving the child, nor any previous allegations of abuse or neglect against the mother, Becky Heupel or her boyfriend.

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By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The 4-year-old half sister of the toddler who died yesterday in Centralia has been taken into protective custody, as police continue their investigation into the death.

Two-year-old Koralynn Fister was taken to the hospital yesterday afternoon after her mother’s boyfriend carried the naked and unbreathing child across the street, saying he found her under water in the bathtub.

He had been caring for her at her home, according to police.

The Centralia Police Department last night arrested the boyfriend, James M. Reeder, 25, for first-degree murder.

An autopsy this morning concluded the child died from drowning and blunt head trauma, according to the Lewis County Coroner’s Office. Coroner Warren McLeod has listed the manner death as homicide.

Centralia police detective Sgt. Pat Fitzgerald said the sibling was taken from the hospital by Child Protective Services last night, when the mother went to the police department to be interviewed about Koralynn’s death.

“We’re not at the point where we know whether the other child is in danger,” Fitzgerald said today about why that was done.

They conducted an informational interview with the mother, and detectives are basically working on if she had any culpability, he said.

The state Department of Social and Health Services Children’s Administration issued a statement saying they have no record of of history with the mother, Becky Heupel or her boyfriend.

The mother is not a suspect, Fitzgerald said.

Detectives are back at the home off of West Oakview Avenue today, recovering evidence and searching the house, according to Fitzgerald.

Among the items they are looking for is an object that might have been used on the toddler’s head, he said.

This afternoon, they have no idea what that might have been, he said.

Police said Reeder told them he was bathing the child, left to get a towel and returned to find the toddler face down in the bath tub.

Across the street neighbors said they opened their door to loud knocking around 3 p.m. to find the boyfriend trying to conduct CPR on their porch.

The child exhibited some injuries, recent and otherwise, that caused officers some concern, according to police.

Fitzgerald said the arrest was made in part because of inconsistent statements from Reeder.

Reeder told them the girl hit her head on the tub, he said.

“We have a version she fell back into the tub and struck her head,” he said. “That’s one version.”

Reeder is scheduled to go before a judge at 4 p.m. today in Lewis County Superior Court.

Police Chief Bob Berg and Cmdr. Dave Ross watch over the house as they wait for a search warrant.

Update at 9:53 p.m.: Police just announced they arrested James M. Reeder, 25, of Centralia, for first-degree murder.

Detective Sgt. Pat Fitzgerald said the arrest was made in part because of inconsistent statements and information they got from other sources, he said.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CENTRALIA – Centralia police are investigating the death of two-and-a-half year old girl.

The mother’s boyfriend said he was bathing the child, left to get a towel and returned to find the toddler face down in the bath tub according to the Centralia Police Department.

The child exhibited some injuries, recent and otherwise, that caused officers some concern, according to police.

Aid and police called about 3 p.m. to a neighborhood called Hunter’s Walk off of West Oakview Avenue found the man performing CPR on the child. She was not breathing, police said.

She was taken by ambulance to Providence Centralia Hospital where she was pronounced dead.

Detectives responded as a matter of routine, in the death of a child, according to police. No arrests have been made as of early this evening.

Yellow police tape blocks off the modular home. The crime scene investigation van is parked in front, while officers wait for a search warrant to go inside and investigate further.

Police Chief Bob Berg said they weren’t prepared to say if it was an accident or intentional.

“It’s death investigation,” Berg said.

Across the street neighbors Ray and Mary Stiltner said they were startled by loud knocking and opened their front door to see the unclothed child laying on their porch with a man.

“He was trying to do CPR on her,” Ray Stiltner said. “His attempts on that continued until they came.”

“He wasn’t doing it very well, I don’t think he knew how,” Mary Stiltner said. “It was very traumatic.”

She called 911.

Mary Stiltner said the man told them the little girl had been in the tub, he was gone for a few seconds and when he returned, she was under water.

Next door neighbors Scott and Cindy North said the woman had moved in about six months earlier.

Cindy North said she wasn’t sure who the man was, as the woman had a different boyfriend until recently.

“I didn’t hear anything, but a lot of times we’d hear the baby crying over there, like it needed attention,” Scott North said.

While neighbors said they saw the man taken away in a patrol car, detective Sgt. Pat Fitzgerald said he went voluntarily to be interviewed at the police department.

The mother of the child is being interviewed there as well tonight, Fitzgerald said.

Updated 9:28 a.m. on Thursday May 24, 2012

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

An appeals court has tossed out a felony conviction of a family practice doctor’s wife, saying the evidence was insufficient to prove Janna Wooten committed first-degree malicious mischief.

Wooten and her husband Dr. David Wooten were charged in 2008, after Dennis Kohl instigated a sheriff’s office investigation, saying the Wootens were his tenants and they trashed his house on Hadaller Road near Mossyrock before they moved out.

The decision filed yesterday by the state of Washington Court of Appeals Division II states that Lewis County prosecutors failed to show an unfinished remodeling project resulted in any damage to the property interest of another.

Kohl found the home with most of the sheetrock removed, only one functional bathroom and filled with garbage, according to three-judge panel.

Prosecutor’s arguments and theory were based on a misunderstanding of real property law, according to the decision.

The appeals court judges wrote that Kohl claimed the Wootens were  leasing with an option to buy and prosecutors agreed, despite evidence provided at trial that showed otherwise.

The Wootens were both put on trial but the decision only relates to the wife’s case, according to the three-judge panel.

The couple moved way from Lewis County after state health officials reinstated the doctor’s license with strict conditions that prevented him from prescribing narcotics and restricted his dealings with female patients. His practice was in Chehalis.

Centralia attorney Peter Tiller  filed the appeal for Janna Wooten. Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Sara Beigh argued for the state.

The unpublished opinion states David Wooten’s medical practice purchased the home before Janna Wooten married him.

He and his business partner Robert Miller signed a real estate contract and a residential purchase and sales agreement but were never given a deed and the seller Kohl never recorded either document, according to the opinion.

The judges wrote that after Kohl sold the house to Wooten Primary Care, Kohl borrowed $325,000 against house from an unidentified lender without telling the Wootens, then stopped making payments on the loan he took out.

Kohl continued collecting payments from the Wootens until December 2007.

The Wooten’s were evicted by Kohl’s lender.

There was no evidence in the record the unfinished remodeling project resulted in a loss to anyone, other than the Wootens, according to the appeals court.

Beigh from the prosecutor’s office said David Wooten appealed his conviction as well, but an opinion has not yet been issued in his case.

“I would expect that decision anytime, but you never can tell,” she said.

Once she receives paperwork from the appeals court, Beigh expects to summon Janna Wooten into Lewis County Superior Court and dismiss the case.

If she doesn’t show up, Beigh said, she will probably just dismiss it anyhow and not pursue it further.

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See State of Washington, Respondent V Janna L. Wooten, here