Janet L. Anderson prepares to leave the courtroom, after being sentenced to more than 18 years in prison.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – The woman who fatally shot her husband inside their north Centralia home made two phone calls the day of the murder to the woman she believed was having an affair with her husband, authorities say.
“We know there was an argument,” Lewis County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Will Halstead said as he sought to share some details with the judge at her sentencing hearing.
There was no trial to reveal all the evidence police had gathered, as 40-year-old Janet L. Anderson entered into a deal with prosecutors that led to her pleading guilty to second-degree murder. Halstead said prosecutors had contemplated increasing the charge to first-degree murder.
Janet L. Anderson, Dec. 2016
Anderson went before a judge in Lewis County Superior Court on Wednesday afternoon, knowing a recommendation for her to spend more than 18 years in prison was coming.
She appeared to go out of her way to keep her back to the audience which held numerous family.
While the initial affidavit of probable cause stated Anderson later told police that after two hours of fighting, she shot her husband because he grabbed his gun and was pointing it at her, Halstead suggested to the court some of her claims were suspect.
“Each had a gun on their own nightstand,” he said.
She’d said that afterward, she threw a towel over her husband’s gun so their son would not see it, Halstead said. But the towel was both under and over that gun, he said. Police found her blood by her husband’s night stand, indicating she had walked over there to retrieve his gun, according to Halstead.
When Anderson pleaded guilty two weeks ago to second-degree murder, she also pleaded guilty to two counts of tampering with physical evidence.
Four rounds were fired; one through a window, another lodged in a wall, Halstead said. One bullet entered his lower back and another his neck.
Halstead reminded the judge when police entered the couple’s bedroom to investigate, they found the body wrapped in a tarp and that Janet Anderson had cleaned up.
“She didn’t call 911 until the following morning, roughly at 8:30,” he said.
Ty W. Anderson, 41, was dead when officers arrived to the residence off of West Oakview Avenue in the Hunter’s Walk neighborhood the morning of Dec. 17.
“She believed he’d cheated on her with a coworker,” Halstead said.
When they checked her phone records, they saw she had phoned the woman, though the calls were not answered, he said.
In bringing the judge up to speed about what led them all to this day in court, Halstead added that while the couple’s young daughter had spent the night with grandparents, their teenage son came home that night and slept, with his father dead in the next room.
Defense attorney Shane O’Rourke asked the court to adopt the agreed recommendation of 220 months, the high end of the standard sentencing range.
Judge Andrew Toynbee heard from Ty Anderson’s aunt, an uncle and his mother. Each wanted the court to know he was loved and missed. Ty Anderson worked in the woods, went to Alaska and then became an iron worker. He was his mother’s only son.
Judge Toynbee imposed the sentence of 18 years and four months, with three years of supervision after release. He ordered Janet Anderson to get an evaluation for anger management and abide by the recommendations.
“This is a tragedy in all respects,” he said.
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For background, read “Wife of slain Centralia man admits she shot him, avoids trial” from Wednesday September 13, 2017, here
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