Lewis County Sirens.com

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS –  Twenty-one-year-old Jack A. Silverthorne is planning to plead guilty in last summer’s death of Morton teenager Austin King.

Austin King

Silverthorne’s lawyer said today attorneys have worked out a plea agreement in which the charges will be downgraded, and his client is looking at about eight and half years in prison.

Centralia attorney J.P. Enbody said it seemed he and prosecutors both came to understand Silverthorne caused the 16-year-old’s death, but it wasn’t something he set out to do.

Austin vanished from his family’s home in the Tilton River Mobile Home Park early on June 23 and was the subject of a month-long search headed up by volunteers. His body was found some 10 miles away off a logging road outside Morton.

Jack A. Silverthorne

Enbody said evidence showed the two were out on the logging road and there was a dispute. The exact details may never be known, he said.

Austin’s skull was cracked and Silverthorne had a broken bone in his hand, he said.

Silverthorne, who had been staying in the trailer park with his grandmother at the time, was arrested in November at his home in Renton and charged with first-degree murder.

Authorities have said in charging documents they believe Silverthorne’s motive was related to an attraction to a girl, the mother of Austin’s child.

He is expected to plead guilty to first-degree manslaughter on May 6.
•••

Read previous most recent story, here

Read more about the case in “Morton homicide: Suspect had broken hand, victim had cracked skull” from Wednesday Nov. 10, 2010, here

This news story was updated at 12:37 p.m.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

Centralia police seized marijuana, food items suspected of containing marijuana and computers yesterday evening when they searched a downtown business they say was operating as a medical marijuana dispensary.

One man was arrested as well at Hub City Natural Medicine on the 100 block of South Tower Avenue, according to police.

The action followed a month-long investigation that grew out of numerous complaints of marijuana violations, according to a news release from the Centralia Police Department.

While the city had issued a business license to the enterprise, it was with the understanding it was dealing in products such as vitamin supplements, according to the news release.

The arrest and seizure comes as the state legislature is considering legislation to clarify issues involving the state’s 1998 voter-approved medical marijuana law.

According to police: the Centralia Police Department’s Anti-Crime Unit served a search warrant about 6 p.m. yesterday.

About a dozen officers, including deputies from the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office, were on hand.

Daniel J. Mack, 39, of Rochester, was arrested for delivery of marijuana, possession of marijuana and possession with intent to deliver marijuana.

There were other people inside – determined to be “patients” or “customers” – but they were not arrested, according to Officer Chris Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald said Mack identified himself as volunteer dispensary worker, but police consider him one of three owners of the business. She expects other arrests to be made.

Among the items confiscated were dried marijuana in large mason jars and packaged for individual sale, various baked goods, candies and refrigerated items suspected of containing marijuana, as well as paraphernalia and the businesses’ computers.

Hub City Natural Medicine applied for its city business license on Jan. 31, specifying the nature of its business as “education and sales of natural medicine”, something that didn’t trigger a review by the chief of police, according to the Centralia Police Department.

The news release cited a bulletin from the Washington Cities Insurance Authority issued in December saying medical marijuana dispensaries are illegal and not entitled to a business license.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

Authorities are blaming a plane crash near Morton last year that killed the pilot and injured a passenger and on a loose cap that deprived the engine of fuel.

The Cirrus Design Corp SR22 crashed near Morton on March 19, 2010.

The 39-year-old pilot and Rebecca Carroll were returning from a business trip in Concord, Calif, and headed to the Renton Airport but the four-seater plane lost power, and he tried to land at Strom Airport in Morton. Instead, the plane struck trees and came to rest in a rural residential area about two and a half miles from the airfield.

The National Transportation Safety Board issued a probable cause report last week.

According to the report, the aircraft had undergone an annual inspection and had three engine cylinders replaced just 11 flight hours before the accident.

The airplane was returned to service without verification all the inspected items had been completed, according to the NTSB.

Following the cylinder replacement and fuel system pressure checks, the cap on the throttle and metering assembly inlet should have been torqued, but it’s likely the cap was just installed finger tight, according to the report.

The plane crashed into the front yard of a home off state Route 508, killing the pilot, Shane Sullivan of Bellevue, according to a news report from KCPQ’ s q13fox.com.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A Lewis County Superior Court judge today denied the prosecution’s request to consolidate two defendants’ cases from last summer’s triple slaying into one trial, saying in part, he didn’t want to give John Allen Booth Jr. grounds for a successful appeal.

Booth, 31, is scheduled for trial the week of May 16.

John A. Booth Jr.

Lewis County Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecutor Brad Meagher suggested the judge could find that judicial economy was more important than Booth’s right to a speedy trial, and postpone it until October when 29-year-old Ryan J. McCarthy is set to be tried in the same deaths.

“One judge, one courtroom, one jury, which is a big deal in this case,” Meagher said.

Meagher said the trial is expected to last a minimum of two weeks and they have the same witnesses, same evidence and same crimes.

Defense attorney James Dixon opposed the move.

His client extended his right to a speedy trial once already, to prepare a response when the state was potentially going to seek the death penalty, he said.

Ryan J. McCarthy

“Both of these defendants have been in jail for months and months and months,” Dixon said. “And they’ve not been joined as co-defendants.”

The hearing in the Chehalis courtroom this afternoon was well-attended; among those in the audience were the brother of one of the victims, McCarthy’s wife, Booth’s fiancee, elected Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer and all the sheriff’s detectives.

Authorities have said they believe the two men’s Aug. 21 visit to the house on Wings Way off Gore Road was related to a drug debt collection.

McCarthy’s lawyer opposed the prosecution’s request as well. McCarthy’s trial is set for the week of Oct. 10.

Attorney Rick Cordes indicated his reasons for not wanting to move up that date.

“I’m surprised the state says they’re ready to go,” Cordes said.

Cordes said he is still waiting for reports from prosecutors involving DNA, fingerprints and ballistics.

“I’m not ready to go to trial without all that information,” Cordes said.

Judge Richard Brosey asked Cordes if he also didn’t want his client tried with Booth, because it might be confusing to a jury hearing evidence pertaining to both men when the two are not charged with identical crimes.

The men are charged with murder and extortion in connection with the shooting deaths of David West Sr. 52, his son David J. West Jr., 16, and Tony E. Williams, 50, of Randle, at the West’s home in the Salkum-Onalaska area. Booth is also charged with the attempted murder of 51-year-old Denise Salts who lived there.

However, Booth is charged with aggravated first-degree murder in the deaths of West Jr. and Williams as well as unlawful possession of a firearm

McCarthy is charged with first-degree felony murder in the three deaths.

Brosey said he was concerned about what an appeals court might think of postponing Booth’s trial, concerned about confusion to a jury, and possible prejudice to McCarthy.

“I’m denying the motion,” he said.

•••

Read most recent previous story on the case, here

Read background on the case:

• “West Sr. pointed shotgun telling pair of ex-cons to leave his house, triggering triple homicide, unsealed court documents allege” from Saturday Sept. 4, 2010 here

• “Unsealed document: More details on Salkum slayings” from Monday Sept. 6, 2010 here