Posts Tagged ‘news reporter’

Sharyn’s Sirens: Daily police and fire roundup

Tuesday, August 16th, 2011

OOPS

• Centralia police say a 19-year-old driving without his headlights turned on, on the wrong side of the road, toward a patrol car overnight was arrested for driving under the influence. Joshua J. Lemhouse, of Vader, pulled to to the correct side of Harrison Avenue once he saw the officer, but was then booked into the Lewis County Jail, according to the Centralia Police Department.

TOLEDO MAN FOUND BY K-9 AFTER FLEEING TRAFFIC STOP

• The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office said this morning that their K-9 Leko tracked down a man overnight who had fled a traffic stop by the Washington State Patrol. Leko and his handler were requested just after 10 p.m. to the area near U.S. Highway 12 and Larmon Road in Ethel, according to the sheriff’s office. The driver, Christopher A. Drummheller, 31, of Toledo, was found hiding in some brush nearby, Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown said.

ASSAULT

• A 48-year-old Morton man was arrested last night after deputies were told he hit his 24-year-old girlfriend in the head with a stick and choked her. A deputy who responded about 7:30 p.m. to a 911 hang up call from the 5300 block of state Route 508 was told the assault occurred because she took too long at the store buying him beer, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. Colen W. Corey, 48, reportedly also pulled the cord from the telephone when she tried to call for help, Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown said. He was booked into the Lewis County Jail for second-degree assault, unlawful imprisonment and interfering with domestic violence reporting.

• Centralia police were called about 3:30 p.m. yesterday to the 300 block of East Magnolia Street where a 22-year-old woman had been struck with an aluminum chair and punched in the face. Her nose appeared to be broken, according to Centralia police. Officers are looking for her husband, Ricardo Martinez-Hernandez, seeking to arrest him for second-degree assault, according to the Centralia Police Department.

THEFT

• Somebody broke into a Mossyrock-area store and stole boxes of candy, cans of Monster energy drinks, lighters and matches, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. A deputy called yesterday morning to the 200 block of Ajlune Road was told it occurred sometime between Sunday and Monday, according to the sheriff’s office. Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown said there was some evidence left at the scene.

• Coins, jewelry and other items were reported stolen yesterday from a residence on the 600 block of West Seventh Street in Centralia. Police were told it happened during the past month.

• Centralia police were called just before 7 p.m. yesterday to a car prowl at Rotary Riverside Park on the 700 block of Harrison Avenue. Medication was stolen, according to police.

VANDALISM

• Chehalis police were called yesterday to a complaint of “tagging” on a garage on the 600 block of Southwest Cascade Avenue.

FIRES

• Firefighters were called to extinguish a smoldering stump in the Seminary Hill nature area in Centralia about 6 o’clock last night.

• Riverside Fire Authority was called yesterday afternoon to Green Gables Drive on Seminary Hill to a burning truck. Its owner said it was running rough so he popped the hood, went to get a wrench and when he came out it was on fire, according to Capt. Ken Colombo. The cab was fully engulfed in flames and then it was extinguished.

• A shed and its contents were destroyed by a fire on Friday evening at the 3100 block of Harrison Avenue in Centralia, according to Riverside Fire Authority. The cause is undetermined, although it is seemed to have started near the floor, according to Assistant Chief Rick Mack.

Centralia police: Trio with baby stroller stopped on sidewalk by gun-wielding man

Tuesday, August 16th, 2011

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

Two men and a woman pushing a baby stroller on a Centralia sidewalk were confronted by a man with a gun last night, according to Centralia police.

Officers called just before 8 p.m. were told the man started arguing with the trio at the intersection of Washington Avenue and Main Street, pulled out a Glock 40, pointed it at them and then ran into a nearby house.

There was no indication of a robbery or anyone injured.

The three told police they did not know the individual or why he confronted them, Officer John Panco said this morning.

Officers knocked on the door to the home where there was a woman and a half dozen males who were asked to come outside,  Panco said.

The victims, all in their 20s except for the 1-year-old child, identified one of them as the man who had stopped them on the street, according to Panco.

A search of the home turned up the suspect gun in a bedroom, Panco said. It was found to be stolen, he said.

Nicholas L. Gonzalez, 21, of Chehalis, was subsequently arrested for four counts of first-degree assault, possession of a stolen firearm and felon in possession of a firearm, Panco said. He was booked into the Lewis County Jail.

News brief: Election results to be available after 8 p.m.

Tuesday, August 16th, 2011

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Preliminary results from the emergency medical services levy for the Packwood-area fire district are expected to be posted on the Lewis County Auditor’s web site a little after 8 p.m. tonight.

Lewis County Fire District 10 in Packwood is asking its voters to approve a levy of 25 cents, or less, per thousand dollars of property valuation for six years. It needs 60 percent to pass.

It’s a continuation of the same levy approved in 2005.

Today’s vote-by-mail primary election also includes three-way races for positions on some city councils, school boards and the board of the Centralia Port District.

Four fire districts in Lewis County will see contested races for commissioner positions in the November 8 election.
•••

For primary results, click here or go to the “elections center” section of the county auditor’s page on the web site for Lewis County government.

Sharyn’s Sirens: Daily police and fire roundup

Monday, August 15th, 2011

BAR BRAWL

• Chehalis police called to a large fight on the 300 block of Northwest Chehalis Avenue about 1:40 a.m. on Sunday found a 32-Winlock man with a broken nose, according to the Chehalis Police Department. No suspect was arrested. However, a 26-year-old Toledo woman was arrested for allegedly punching another woman in the face at the one of the bars, detective Sgt. Rick McNamara said. Leah D. Greenwood was arrested for fourth-degree assault and then released, according to McNamara. The two incidents were somehow related, he said.

NEPHEW ARRESTED FOR CHOKING AUNT

• A 24-year-old Chehalis man was arrested for second-degree assault after he allegedly choked his aunt and threw her to the ground yesterday. The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office said Emmanuel Bullen was angry because she would not give him a ride or money. Bullen was subsequently found on Bishop Road and booked into the Lewis County Jail, Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown said.

DEPUTY: WOMAN EATS EVIDENCE

• A 46-year-old Winlock woman was hospitalized and arrested after she swallowed a plastic bag of some unknown substance after a deputy told her to spit it out. A deputy had contacted Barbara Fisher about an alleged violation of a protection order following an investigation that began on Friday evening, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. Fisher was taken to the emergency room where she was treated or observed and then booked into the Lewis County Jail for tampering, obstruction and violation of a protection order, Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown said. Brown said the sheriff’s office didn’t know what it was she swallowed, but did not believe Fisher when she said it was sleeping pills.

FLEEING POLICE AND POLICE DOGS

• Centralia police dog Kayo tracked a man who fled police just before 8 p.m. on Saturday when they went to a a residence on the 1200 block of View Avenue. An arriving officer recognized the man who ran into the home and back out again as having a warrant, Officer John Panco said. Kayo found 21-year-old Marcus J. Inman at a nearby trailer and the Centralia resident gave himself up, Panco said. Inman was booked into the Lewis County Jail.

• A 24-year-old Chehalis man wanted for an outstanding warrant ran from a traffic stop in the 1200 block of North Tower Avenue about 12:25 p.m. on Saturday, drawing officers from Chehalis, the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office and a police dog. Officer John Panco said Raland A. E. Titus gave himself up before police dog Lobo could catch up to him. He was booked into the Lewis County Jail.

THEFT

• Chehalis police were called about 9:45 p.m. yesterday about a burglary on the 600 block of Northwest West Street. Details on what was missing could not be readily confirmed.

• Centralia police took a report of the theft of a .22 Ruger pistol. The man who lost it told police it was taken from his vehicle sometime since the beginning of last month and Friday.

• Officers responding to an alarm just before 1 o’clock this morning at a business on the 1200 block of Belmont Avenue found a large broken window and the doors open. Nothing appeared to be missing, according to the Centralia Police Department.

• Centralia police were called just after 6 o’clock this morning to the 2500 block of Fords Prairie Avenue when a 61-year-old man discovered his red, three-wheeled electric scooter had been stolen from beside his truck sometime during the night.

• A Toledo woman returned home on Friday to her residence on the 100 block of Plomondon Road to find an estimated $5,500 of items stolen. Among the goods stolen from her garage and boat were fishing reels and life jackets, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s office.

• Police were called Saturday night about a car prowl on the 300 block of South Berry Street in Centralia. Missing was beer and CDs, taken sometime that day, according to the Centralia Police Department.

• Police were called about 5:40 p.m. on Friday by a woman who said a male was loading her car onto a trailer at the 700 block of South Tower Avenue in Centralia. Arriving officers found the vehicle loaded up but no thief was around, according to the Centralia Police Department.

• Somebody stole six-foot lengths of copper ground wire from 21 utility poles along Lincoln Creek Road outside Centralia, according to a report taken Friday by a deputy. A PUD employee said it must have occurred sometime since the beginning of March, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. The loss is estimated at $2,668.

VANDALISM

• Deputies were called to the Lewis County Jail on Friday arrested an inmate for allegedly using a broken broom handle to destroy the screen on a new visitation kiosk, the sheriff’s office reported this morning. Lyle R. West, 59, of Glenoma, was arrested for second-degree malicious mischief, Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown said. The damage was $815, Brown said.

• Chehalis police were called about “tagging” on a garage in an alley between Southwest Fourth and Fifth streets on Friday.

DRUGS

• Centralia police found methamphetamine and heroin when they searched a residence on the 1200 block of View Avenue in Centralia on Friday night. Jose L. Ortiz, 30, was arrested and booked for possession of meth with intent to deliver, according to the Centralia Police Department. Christian D. Brown, 24, was arrested and booked for possession of heroin with intent to deliver, according to police. Both are Centralia residents.

• A 40-year-old woman and a 40-year-old man, both from Centralia, were arrested for possession of heroin about 10:30 p.m. on Saturday night at the 1200 block of Alder Street in Centralia, according to police. Toni L. Maier and Shawn D. Johnson were booked into the Lewis County Jail, police reported. Johnson was also booked for possession of methamphetamine, according to police.

WRECKS

• A vehicle ran into a power pole on the 200 block of Tilley Avenue in Centralia just before 6 p.m. yesterday, knocking out electricity in the area for several hours, according to Centralia police. The pole was broken and a 34-year-old Chehalis man was cited for driving with a suspended license, according to the Centralia Police Department.

• A 50-year-old Onalaska man was injured when his vehicle ran into a tree last night on Jorgenson Road near state Route 508. The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office said this morning that Paul E. Marko received lacerations to his head and body and was taken to Providence Centralia Hospital. His vehicle was totaled, and it appeared he was speeding, Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown said. Marko was cited for first-degree driving with a suspended license and operating a motor vehicle without an ignition interlock device, Brown said.

DOG BITES CHILD’S FACE

• A 3-year-old Chehalis boy was taken to the hospital after he was bitten on the cheek by a dog on the 600 block of State Street in Centralia yesterday afternoon, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. Chief Civil Deputy Stacy Brown said the child had a large open wound on his face that came from an English Mastiff. The child was reportedly playing rough with the dog and may have startled it, so Brown didn’t expect its owner would be cited.

ALLEY FIRE

• Riverside Fire Authority and police were called about 12:45 a.m. today to a fire in a Dumpster in an alley in between South Pearl Street and South Tower Avenue on the 100 block. They don’t know what caused it, according to the fire department.

News brief: Passenger in Rochester wreck recovering at Harborview

Monday, August 15th, 2011

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

A Rochester man is in satisfactory condition this morning following a Friday night wreck on U.S. Highway 12 at Moon Road that sent him by helicopter to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

Donald M. Stacy, 57, was airlifted to the Seattle hospital after the three-vehicle collision in Rochester late Friday night.

Troopers called at 11:40 p.m. found the Ford Taurus Stacy was a passenger in totaled, according to the Washington State Patrol.

Its driver, Casey D. Hasenbalg, 27, also of Rochester, was transported to Providence Centralia Hospital where he was treated and has been released.

Hasenbalg was westbound and making a left turn on to Moon Road when his car was struck by an eastbound vehicle, according to the state patrol. The Taurus was shoved into a Subaru sitting at a stop sign on Moon Road, the state patrol reported.

A 52-year-old Rochester woman driving the Subaru was reportedly uninjured but her car sustained an estimated $1,000 damage, according to the patrol.

The other vehicle, a Mitsubishi Endeavor sustained an estimated $3,000 damage, and the state patrol reported its driver – a 24-year-old Rochester woman – was also uninjured.

State patrol still seeking damaged van from fatal freeway hit and run

Monday, August 15th, 2011
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This photo is an example of the particular body and grille style of the van troopers are looking for. Details such as window configurations, color and length my be different. / Courtesy photo Washington State Patrol

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Troopers are still looking for the van that left a 77-year-old Chehalis woman dead on Interstate 5 near Chehalis on May 21.

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Lily M. Rowland

Lily M. Rowland, who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, had wandered away from her home on Bishop Road home and was struck by a vehicle on northbound Interstate 5 near the Labree Road interchange.

It happened just before 10 p.m. on a Saturday night.

The Washington State Patrol says the van will likely be missing its right-side mirror and its front passenger side amber-colored marking light will be broken or missing.

Pieces of the van found at the scene belong to a 1996 to 2002 full sized Chevrolet Express or GMC Savana van, according to the state patrol.

Anyone with information about what happened is asked to call detective Sgt. Rob Brusseau at 360-449-7941.

Salkum triple homicide: Deal, no deal

Sunday, August 14th, 2011
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D.J. West, 16, right, poses for a photo with his older sister Jessica Porter in Lewis County two weeks before he was shot to death. / Courtesy photo

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – In a week, 23-year-old Jessica Porter will be burying her father’s ashes in the grave where her only brother was laid to rest almost a year ago.

A memorial service will be held in a cemetery in The Dalles, Ore. for David West Sr. 52, and his son David West Jr., 16, on Aug. 21, the one-year anniversary of their deaths in their Salkum-Onalaska area home.

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David West Sr.

The two were shot to death, along with a 50-year-old from Randle; while West. Sr.’s live-in girlfriend was seriously wounded by a gunshot. It’s a case that has more questions than answers, as far as Porter is concerned.

The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office have called the homicides related to a drug debt collection, but Porter doesn’t buy that.

“We think there’s a lot more to it than anybody knows,” Porter said.

Porter, a young mother of two who calls the Randle area home even though she lives in a county on the other side of the mountains now, has been anxious for the case to move along.

Two men were charged last year in the deaths and have trials scheduled for this autumn. She got word the end of July that prosecutors made a plea deal with one of them. It wasn’t something she was happy with, but it gave her hope that meant one would testify against the other.

But the week before last in Lewis County Superior Court, murder defendant Ryan McCarthy and his lawyer were moving forward toward an Oct. 10 trial.

Exactly what happened isn’t clear. Elected Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer only said “You’d have to ask his attorney.”

Olympia defense attorney Rick Cordes said he had a deal with Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecutor Brad Meagher, but something changed after Meagher left for vacation.

“We had an agreement,” Cordes said. “But somebody added a condition onto it.”

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Ryan McCarthy, right, confers with his lawyer Rick Cordes in Lewis County Superior Court on Aug. 4, 2011

Early last month, Cordes and Meagher said they had negotiated a plea deal for McCarthy. The 29-year-old was going to plead down from three counts of first-degree murder to two counts of second-degree assault, Cordes said.

When they showed up in court in mid-July, the deal was off.

Porter says she doesn’t know what to think after it happened a second time.

If McCarthy was not the shooter, as she’s inclined to believe, she’s not opposed to plea bargaining, she said.

“All I can hope is they do get a deal to where he testifies, so they don’t have to drag it out for years and years and years, or Booth gets off,” Porter said. “It’s something that will never go away, but the sooner they get (convicted) the sooner I’ll get feeling better.”

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John A. Booth Jr.

John A. Booth Jr., 32, is the other man charged with murder in the case. The former Onalaska resident and McCarthy were previously prison cell mates.

Both are charged with murder of West Sr., David Jr. and 50-year-old Tony E. Williams of Randle who was at the house that night. Booth is charged with attempted murder of Denise Salts, then 51.

The two men are also charged with attempted extortion of West. Sr.

Porter has heard a lot of different stories and gained more insight about what might have been behind Booth and McCarthy’s alleged visit to her dad’s home that night.

It’s left her scared for herself, and wishing she knew more earlier, so she could have taken her younger brother with her when she left after a visit to Lewis County just two weeks before they were killed.

“He had a lot of family that really loved him and cared,” Porter said of her brother. “He wasn’t a bad kid, he was a good kid. He was the one that was gonna go to college.”

David Jr., who was called D.J., has tons of aunts, uncles and cousins in Oklahoma, his sister said.

Their mother lives near Porter’s home, and D.J. has a half sister whom Porter has not been able to find.

D.J. lived in Morton when he attended elementary school. She went to White Pass High School, she said.

Then, he lived with his mother in Oklahoma until he was about 13,  and he wanted to go live with his dad again in Lewis County, his older sister said.

He was a 16-year-old who got what one of his class mates at Onalaska High School described as “amazing grades”.

Though the two of them don’t share the same father, Porter said she doesn’t consider D.J. a half brother, or West Sr. a step-father.

“He was my brother straight out, no half in there for me,” Porter wrote in an email exchange.

West Sr. is her father, as far as she’s concerned, although not biologically and despite the fact he and her mother didn’t marry.

He worked for a forest products company in North Bend and transferred to Morton long ago, she said. The past few years, he bought, rebuilt and sold cars.

Porter, her two children and her boyfriend were visiting from out of town on August 8 of last year when Robbie Russell, Booth and McCarthy showed up at her dad’s home off Gore Road. Her father only knew Russell, not the other two, she said. After the men left, her father told her to leave.

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Robert Shawn Russell

“My dad told me go home, you need to go home, and I asked why,” Porter said. “He said, you just need to go.”

Porter told authorities her father told her he had to pay Russell $1,000 to get him to leave, and that he was being blackmailed, according to charging documents in the case.

Russell back last August was named a person of interest in the homicides but was never charged. He’s in prison now on unrelated crimes.

One of the reasons prosecutors gave a judge for a warrant to bring Russell in, was his visit to the West’s house was a violation of a no-contact order from a case in which West Sr. was a witness against Russell.

In hindsight, Porter thinks her dad was afraid after that visit and that he, and maybe others, knew something bad was going to happen, she said.

Now, almost a year later, she still can’t stop imagining over and over what took place the night her brother and father were shot. She worries about her anxiety and depression getting in the way of her being a parent to her two little girls.

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Salkum: Three found fatally shot, Aug. 21, 2010.

There are so many unanswered questions that nag at her.

“If I would have known anything was gonna go down I would have went and got my brother out of that place but I didn’t know,” she wrote.

Porter doesn’t know why Booth and McCarthy would have returned on August 21.

“There’s a lot of weird things in the case,” she said. “I want to know what they were getting out of going there.”

McCarthy’s trial is scheduled for Oct. 10. Booth’s trial is set for November.