Lewis County Sirens.com

Carlos Vidal Guiterrez, right, stands with defense attorney Bob Schroeter in a Chehalis courtroom this afternoon.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The three shots that fatally wounded 23-year-old Efren J. Triana outside a Centralia tavern were fired into his back, prosecutors alleged when they charged Carlos Vidal Guiterrez almost a quarter of a century ago.

Today, Guiterrez faced a judge in Lewis County Superior Court in Chehalis and a charge of second-degree murder.

Guiterrez, 54, was brought to Lewis County yesterday following his arrest by U.S. marshals two weeks ago in San Benito County in central California.

Carlos Vidal Guiterrez

Centralia police had been tracking him off and on since 1986 and a “cold case” detective recently located him, according to the Centralia Police Department.

Defense attorney Bob Schroeter, using a Spanish interpreter, told the judge Guiterrez has no assets and no income to hire a lawyer.

Judge Nelson Hunt appointed Centralia defense attorney David Arcuri to represent Guiterrez.

Hunt scheduled Guiterrez to return to court tomorrow afternoon, so bail can be set by another judge.

“I am recused from the case, as I was chief criminal deputy prosecutor when the case was charged,” Hunt said.

Then-elected Lewis County Prosecutor James Miller filed the charge in 1986.

Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Will Halstead – one of three lawyers newly-elected Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer hired after he started in January – is handling the case today.

“The real part now is just finding some of the folks,” Halstead said after the brief hearing.

It was almost 25 years ago, at about 1 o’clock in the morning when Centralia police were called to a tavern called La Adalitas, at the 100 block of West Main Street, according to Centralia Officer John Panco. Triana, a Rochester resident, had been shot. It was Oct. 25, 1986.

Charging documents filed four days later describe how the suspect had attempted to pick a fight with other bar patrons. Nobody took him up on it until Triana said, ” … if he wished to fight, he, the victim, would fight with him outside the tavern,” charging documents state.

The documents go on to give the following account:

Once outside, the victim put his hands up as though to fight and a gunshot was heard. The victim grabbed his head, then turned away from the defendant.

The defendant fired three more rounds, after which the victim ran several feet and collapsed. The defendant ran from the area.

Police and Centralia Fire Department aid persons found Triana seriously wounded. Triana was taken to Centralia General Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

An autopsy the following day determined Triana suffered a grazing wound to his head from a bullet and three fatal shots to his body.

The 23-year-old was believed to have been unarmed.

Police discovered their suspect got a ride to the Yakima area, but didn’t find him there. He had worked often in Eastern Washington as a laborer.

On of the primary investigators was Sgt. Robert Berg, now the chief of police.

Police developed information their suspect would be leaving the state and trying to return to Mexico. He was a Mexican citizen, and as far as investigators could determine, not legally in the United States.

Charging documents say the suspect used several aliases. Those listed are: Roberto Vidal Guiterrez, Roberto Sepi Guiterrez, Carlos Kiros, Sepi Guiterrez and Carlos Guiterrez Moreno.

There is currently a hold on Guiterrez by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
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Read “Breaking news: Suspect arrested in 1986 Centralia cold case murder” from Wednesday March 23, 2011, here

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

While attorneys for the Tenino man found with a dead woman bundled in a sleeping bag in the passenger compartment of his truck in August told him they believed he had a viable insanity defense, Bernard K. Howell III chose a straight up plea of guilty to first-degree murder.

Bernard K. Howell III

Howell, now 27, initially denied any involvement in the death of the 60-year-old woman whose throat was cut and was found partially unclothed inside his pickup truck. But on March 17, he pleaded guilty in Thurston County Superior Court.

There was no plea agreement, there was no so-called Alford plea in which defendants deny guilt but accept a conviction admitting they would likely be found responsible, according to lawyers handling the case.

“Why? Because he knew he did it, he knew he was going to get punished no matter what happened,” his defense attorney Robert Jimerson said yesterday. “He simply wanted to get that punishment started.”

Investigators believe Vanda Skau Boone, a massage therapist who worked in Olympia and lived in Yelm, was attacked on the bicycle path known as the Yelm to Tenino Trail near Churchill Road Southeast.

Vanda Skau Boone, from her MySpace

Howell was arrested Aug. 8 when he was pulled over near Tenino’s elementary school with Boone’s still warm body.

According to charging documents, the self-employed door-to-door meat salesman told detectives he had a 10-pound weight in his truck and was going to bury her in a swamp to save the family the cost of a funeral. He told detectives he had in sex with her after he found her dead.

Howell, who goes by his middle name of Keith, is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday morning in an Olympia courtroom.

Deputy Prosecutor Jim Powers says he will recommend a prison term of 26 years and eight months, the high end of the standard sentencing range. The low end is 20 years, according to Powers.

Jimerson said his client didn’t want to sit through a two to three week trial with horrific details and horrific pictures.

“He had asked to try and get some sort of a deal, and we weren’t able to do that,” Jimerson said.

Howell has no criminal history, but he has a history of mental health issues, according to his father, his lawyer and even an attorney for the prosecution.

He was sent to Western State Hospital to be evaluated, treated and subsequently was found competent to stand trial.

Jimerson didn’t go into specifics or describe his client’s diagnosis.

“Mental health was an issue before this event and it’s going to be for the rest of his life,” Jimerson said. “That, without question, is the case.”

Jimerson said he and co-counsel Patrick O’Connor spoke at length with Howell about an insanity plea. However, if an individual is found not guilty by reason of insanity, they can be held for the maximum term of the charge, which in this case would be life, Jimerson said.

“I think this presents a little more certainty for him” knowing his incarceration will end at some point, he said.

Jimerson said he hasn’t decided yet exactly what he will present at the sentencing. As awful as it is what happened to Boone and what Howell did, he and O’Connor wish that Howell’s life could have been a little different, he said.

“(The judge) will hopefully see that Mr. Howell is a human being who I know regrets what he did, knows, I think, understands, the nature of what he did, and is ready to accept punishment,” he said.

Howell lived off and on in Tenino with his father. Before that, he lived in Lakewood. At one time, he was employed as a security guard working in places from Lakewood to Auburn, according to his father, fifty-seven-year-old Bernard K. Howell Jr.

Soon after his arrest, the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office was contacted by other law enforcement agencies in the state – including Pierce, Snohomish and Grays Harbor counties – who wanted to know if Howell offered any information about anything else he’d been involved in.

The sheriff’s office still considers him to be a person of interest in the March 2009 disappearance of Nancy Moyer, a 36-year-old mother of two when she vanished from her Tenino home.

Moyer’s house is less than a mile from where Howell lived with his father.

She was last seen by co-workers on March 6, 2009, and two days later her ex-husband went to her home, discovered she wasn’t there and reported her missing.

Deputy Prosecutor Powers said Howell hasn’t yet been interviewed about any other cases, because it’s inappropriate while this case is unfinished.

Thurston County sheriff’s Lt. Greg Elwin said they expect to talk with Howell after he is sentenced.
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Read background on the case here

Yelm to Tenino Trail at Tenino, Aug. 16, 2009