Lewis County Sirens.com

Ronald Brady listens to the jury's verdict this evening

This news story was updated at 11:55 p.m.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A jury found Onalaska resident Ronald A. Brady guilty of second-degree manslaughter today.

The elements of the crime include acting with negligence, failing to even be being aware of the risk death may occur; that being a gross deviation from what a reasonable person would do in the same situation.

Brady, 60, was on trial this week in Lewis County Superior Court for first-degree murder, in the death of 56-year-old Thomas McKenzie of Morton.

Thomas McKenzie

The jury began deliberating about 3:15 p.m. today and came to a verdict by 6 p.m.

They were given instructions to consider both first and second degree murder as well as first and second-degree manslaughter.

There was no finding Brady acted in self defense on the night of April 19, 2010, according to Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Colin Hayes.

Brady admitted firing five or six shots with a .22 caliber rifle, three of them toward a suspected burglar outside of an uninhabited house he owns and has been re-building since a fire in the late 1990s.

Brady admitted when he testified yesterday McKenzie was moving away from him while Brady stood “pretty much” in the garage after he’d opened the garage door to confront what believed were burglars returning from earlier in the day.

He told a detective he didn’t think a .22 had that kind of “stopping power”.

Because the crime was committed with a firearm, Brady faces a mandatory minimum of three years in prison – with no possibility of reduction for any “good” time – along with a standard sentence of between 21 and 27 months, according to Hayes.

After the verdict was read, Brady handed his keys and other items to one of three individuals who have sat behind him throughout the trial.

But Judge Nelson Hunt did not order him taken into custody. Brady was told to return to court next Thursday to learn his sentencing date.

The jury also decided Brady was not guilty of first- or second-degree assault in the case of McKenzie’s wife, Joanna McKenzie who testified she that while she took cover behind a truck in the driveway, she heard the glass in its windshield shot out and felt “air or something” graze her face.

“They didn’t believe a single thing Joanna McKenzie said,” Centralia defense attorney Don Blair said tonight after he and prosecutors met with jurors following their findings.

Defense attorney Don Blair

“The jurors thought he (his client) made some poor decisions and that’s why they found him guilty of the least possible crime with regard to Tom,” Blair said.

Thomas McKenzie died at the scene; of a gunshot that passed through his chest, and through the pulmonary artery that goes to the lungs.

He leaves behind nine children, parents and siblings, some of whom were in the courtroom during the trial.

His brother John McKenzie said he was “not happy” with the jury’s decision and he felt no “closure.” His brother didn’t get a trial as to what he was doing on the property that night, he said.

“Mr. Brady may get out in five years, my brother can’t,” John McKenzie said after the verdict. “He shot him like a dog. He shot him like he was out on a hunting trip.”

John McKenzie’s wife, Aleta McKenzie, described her feelings this way:

“It’s like the people of Lewis County have no respect for human life,” she said. “It’s like their property or belongings are more important than human life.”

The shooting has generated strong opinions on both sides.

After it happened last year, Lewis County Sheriff Steve Mansfield didn’t arrest Brady, announcing he believed the shooting was justified.

Last autumn, prosecutors filed manslaughter charges against Brady and then upgraded them to first-degree murder soon thereafter.

Prosecutors argued it was intentional and premeditated.

Deputy Prosecutor Colin Hayes described Brady as a man who was frustrated and angry about repeated burglaries.

Deputy Prosecutor Colin Hayes

He told his neighbor Elizabeth Nunes earlier that day “nobody gets away with doing this” to him, and he was going to shoot them if they got into his property, Hayes told jurors in his closing statements yesterday.

Brady loaded as much ammunition as his rifle and shotgun could hold and took them to the house on the 2100 block of state Route 508, Hayes said, and waited two hours in the dark hoping burglars would return.

Hayes questioned how Brady could have been afraid, when it was Brady who opened the garage door and began firing after someone had knocked on his door.

“So he switches from defensive to offensive,” Hayes said. “He had a plan the whole day to kill.”

Blair described his client as a man who prepared himself.

Brady discovered he’d been burglarized, and “like a good neighbor” he notified two of neighbors and called the police.

Deputy Duke Adkisson told him it appeared they might return, Blair told the jury.

“Are you going to go and hide, or are you going to prepare yourself,” Blair asked the jury in his closing statements.

The people outside didn’t leave, even after Brady tripped on something inside the house and made noise, Blair said.

Brady testified he opened the garage door planning to shoot out the tires of their truck. He found two flashlights shining in his face, Blair said.

“He shoots into the truck and they do what? They (the flashlights) don’t move,” Blair said. “It’s at that moment, that’s the critical moment.”

His client didn’t know if the intruders were armed and feared for his life, he said.

Deputy Prosecutor Hayes said at the end of today, it’s a fair conclusion, since that’s what the jury decided.

“We respect their decision,” Hayes said. “We respect the whole process of having juries decide issues like this.”
•••

Read some of the previous news stories:

• “Update: Onalaska murder trial” from Friday June 24, 2011 at 1:03 p.m., here

• “Onalaska murder trial: Defendant says he doesn’t know why he fired his gun” from Thursday June 23, 2011, here

• “Onalaska murder trial: Prosecutor: Home owner said he “planned to shoot” burglars” from Wednesday June 22, 2011, here

• “News brief: Onalaska murder trial begins” from Tuesday June 21, 2011, here

• “Onalaska murder trial set for next week” from Thursday June 16, 2011, here

• “News brief: Attorneys argue on allowable questions at upcoming Onalaska murder trial” from Monday Dec. 6, 2010, here

• “Onalaska shooting: Charges upped from manslaughter to first-degree murder” from Monday November 22, 2010, here

• “News brief: Joanna D. McKenzie arrested for drugs in Centralia” from Monday November 22, 2010, here

• “Onalaska man accused in fatal shooting of suspected burglar goes before a judge” from Wednesday Oct. 13, 2010, here

• “Warrant issued: Onalaska burglary suspect a no-show at her sentencing” from  Wednesday Oct. 13, 2010, here

• “Onalaska man charged in April’s fatal shooting of suspected burglar” from Friday Sept. 24, 2010, here

• “When is it OK to use deadly force in Lewis County?: Not so simple to answer, sheriff says” from Thursday July 15, 2010, here

Ronald Brady stands next to a diagram of his house and its driveway.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Ronald Brady spoke to a detective soon after he fired as many as six shots – one fatal – at a pair of suspected burglars outside his Onalaska house.

Lewis County Sheriff’s Office detective Bruce Kimsey: “What, why did you feel you had to shoot at these people?”

Brady: “I have no idea … I’d already shot at their front tires, and they were still pointing their flashlights at me.”

Brady, 60, is on trial for first-degree murder in the death of Thomas McKenzie of Morton and first-degree assault regarding McKenzie’s wife, Joanna McKenzie, on the night of April 19, 2010.

The retired bachelor called 911 himself, telling deputies he stayed overnight at his under-construction house on the 2100 block of state Route 508, because he thought someone had broken into the garage earlier and had arranged items for later retrieval, according to evidence heard in the trial this week in Lewis County Superior Court.

Deputies found fifty-six year-old Thomas McKenzie dead on the ground outside the house.

The father of nine died of a gunshot that passed through his chest, and through the pulmonary artery that goes to the lung, pathologist, Dr. Gina Fino told the jury yesterday.

Detectives recovered a Remington .22 caliber rifle and four spent casings, according to witness testimony.

Brady hasn’t testified; his words were heard in a taped statement played yesterday for the jury of six men and six women.

In the statement, Brady tells Kimsey it was about 9 p.m. when he got up to stretch his legs; he saw a light shining underneath the garage door, from a vehicle that arrived. The lights went out, he said.

“I decided, I got my .22 with me, so I would just wait and see what happened here,” Brady told Kimsey.

He said he heard a loud knocking on the door, but nobody called out to him to say anything.

“I thought, oh, I’m gonna open the garage door and shoot out the tires,” Brady said.

Brady described he was positioned “pretty much” in the garage, shooting from the hip and crouching.

He thought he fired two or three times at the truck’s tires and may have put one or two rounds through the windshield of the truck that was in his driveway, he said.

One person (later determined to be Thomas McKenzie with a flashlight) was to his left near the garage and the other at the back end of the truck, he said.

Kimsey: “The man is moving in the direction of where the woman is?”

“Brady: “Yeah”

Brady: “I think I shot a total of three in his direction”

Brady: “I might have shot once again at the windshield of the pickup. I might have shot at the cab of the pickup, or I might have shot at the tires.”

Brady told Kimsey he wasn’t taking any chances, they might be high on meth.

Kimsey: “Did you say anything to them this entire time?”

Brady: “No”

He put the rifle down and called 911.

The trial resumes this morning.
•••

Read about the opening day of the trial here

Deputy Prosecutor Shane O'Rourke addresses jurors as Ronald Brady's murder trial begins in Lewis County Superior Court

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Prosecutors told jurors yesterday that murder defendant Ronald Brady believed burglars would return to his Onalaska house the night of April 19, 2010 and told his neighbor if they did come back, he planned to shoot them.

Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Shane O’Rourke told the jury in opening statements it was not a case of self defense; that nobody came through Brady’s garage, broke down a door or crawled through a window.

“Lying in wait in almost total darkness, waiting to trap and kill whoever showed up at his residence that night,” O’Rourke said in his opening statements yesterday morning. “The defendant shot and killed Thomas McKenzie and almost did the same to Joanna McKenzie.”

Ronald Brady

Brady, 60, a retired bachelor, is on trial in Lewis County Superior Court for first-degree murder and first-degree assault.

Fifty-six-year-old Thomas McKenzie of Morton died outside the house Brady owns on the the 2100 block of state Route 508 with a gunshot through his chest.

Lewis County Sheriff Steve Mansfield didn’t arrest Brady, announcing he believed the shooting was justified. His office arrested Joanna McKenzie, wife of Thomas McKenzie, for burglary in connection with their visit to the property that night.

But last autumn, prosecutors filed manslaughter charges against Brady and then upgraded them to murder soon thereafter.

A jury of six men and six women heard from attorneys from both sides yesterday morning and then a handful of witnesses for the prosecution before adjourning at 5 p.m.

Defense attorney Don Blair followed O’Rourke yesterday morning with nearly 30 minutes of an entirely different view of what happened that night.

“A number of things the prosecutor just outlined for you are not true, and, he didn’t tell you the whole story,” Blair said.

Brady, a former computer analyst, was described as beginning that day by doing chores like chopping wood and then leaving to play bridge at a  local church.

He returned in the late afternoon and found not that he may have been burglarized, but he found evidence he had been burglarized, Blair said. And it had happened some five occasions prior, Blair told the jury.

Brady has owned the property for years, but after a fire there, moved into the house next-door, and goes to the property regularly, according to Blair.

A deputy came and took a report and Brady did go home and get his shotgun, but the .22 rifle was already at the house, Blair said.

The Centralia defense attorney went on to say:

It was around 10 p.m. and pitch black out.

“So the burglars returned. They shut their lights out and get their flashlights out,” he said.

His client didn’t know who it was and he didn’t know what their intentions were, Blair said.

“What the prosecutor left out is when Ron opened the garage door, the first thing he did, he wanted to shoot out the tires,” Blair said. “He didn’t want the burglars to get away. It wasn’t he wanted to kill someone.”

Brady just saw two lights shining in his face; he feared for his life, Blair said. It’s not clear how many shots he fired, according to Blair.

“I would say it’s a tragedy Tom died and Ron does feel bad about that,” Blair said. “But looking back, I can’t tell you Ron would do it different today”

Joanna McKenzie took the stand at mid-day, answering questions from Deputy Prosecutor Colin Hayes and Blair.

Joanna McKenzie

Under questioning, the 33-year-old Morton woman said she and husband pulled into the driveway with their headlights turned off and her husband went to knock on the front door.

He returned to the truck, she got out, she said. They both started knocking on the garage door then she went back to the truck and Thomas McKenzie went to the side of the house, she testified.

“A noise, the garage door, got my attention, and then a guy started firing,” she said.

Joanna McKenzie said she heard her husband yell he was shot and saw a person kneeling in the garage.

Nothing was said by the shooter, but “I was screaming something along the lines of ‘stop, what are you doing’,” she testified.

Joanna McKenzie testified that when she took cover behind their truck, she heard the glass in its windshield shot out.

“I believe I was standing at the time, I felt air or something graze my face,” she said.

She said she ran to the road, flagged a vehicle down and called 911.

Not discussed yesterday in any detail was the fact that Joanna McKenzie was convicted last October for attempted burglary from that night. She made a so-called Alford plea, not admitting guilt

The trial resumes this morning and is expected to last all week.

Prosecutors did not say when the neighbor would testify about his or her conversation with Brady.

Defense attorney Don Blair makes opening statements in Ronald Brady's murder trial in Lewis County Superior Court.

Robert McKenzie, 14, spreads some of his father's ashes on Sunday in a rose garden at the church he attends where he lives in Wichita, Kansas. / Courtesy photo by Larry Lane