Lewis County Sirens.com

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

The Thurston County Sheriff’s Office says it thwarted a plot to murder one of their own detectives with an arrest this afternoon.

Royce Lynn Baxter, 59, of Long Beach, Wash., was already in the Thurston County Jail for burglary and stalking, and was planning to kill or have killed the detective who put him there, according to the sheriff’s office.

Royce Lynn Baxter

Baxter had been arrested in December for first-degree burglary and stalking in connection with a woman who lives outside Tumwater, a woman he’d been infatuated with some dozen years, according to Lt. Greg Elwin.

The detective was tipped on Wednesday about Baxter’s plan, Elwin said.

“From jail, he was trying to, first of all, put in motion a plan from jail so once he made bail, to kill one witness and the detective in the case,” Elwin said.

Elwin said Baxter made arrangements to get an untraceable cell phone, a car not registered to him and to get guns to Olympia.

An undercover sheriff’s deputy acted as the potential hired killer during the investigation, Elwin said.

Elwin said the investigation showed at first Baxter wanted to do it himself, targeting detective Dave Haller and the husband of his stalking victim.

“But he didn’t have enough money to pay for both, so he called off the hit on the husband and put all his resources on Haller,” Elwin said.

Elwin said the investigation revealed Baxter had taken significant steps to include other people in his plan.

Baxter relayed a request to the person he thought he was hiring – which was actually an undercover deputy – to retrieve three guns from his home in Long Beach and put them in a car he could use to flee the area, according to Elwin. The firearms were seized.

Baxter was arrested about 4 p.m. today for conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.

Kenneth R. Varner waits to see a judge in Lewis County Superior Court today.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – A man wanted for allegedly helping his father – a former Washington state trooper – carry out a suicide plan and make it look like homicide so the family could collect insurance money was arrested in Mexico and delivered yesterday to the Lewis County Jail.

Authorities have sought 34-year-old Kenneth R. Varner, of Olympia, nearly a year.

His father, James E. Varner, 49, of Olympia, was found dead with a gunshot wound five years ago inside his car on a forest road near Packwood.

Detectives investigated the February 2006 death as suspicious; the deceased was in passenger seat and they did not locate a gun with the body.

James E. Varner

The firearm authorities believe was used was discovered later in Mayfield Lake by a fisherman, according to charging documents.

Lewis County Sheriff Steve Mansfield said Kenneth Varner was living in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and the sheriff’s office was feeding information to U.S. Marshals, who worked with their contacts in Mexico. Kenneth Varner was deported and taken to Los Angeles on March 31 by the U.S. Marshal’s Service, according to Mansfield.

Lead detective Bruce Kimsey and another detective picked him up from the Los Angeles County Jail yesterday and flew him here last night, according to Mansfield.

The sheriff said there’s “a lot of fraud” involved.

“It’s been a very detailed, comprehensive investigation here,” Mansfield said. “It covers a lot of ground.”

Bail was set today at $500,000.

James Varner worked for the state Department of Labor and Industries and before that, was a trooper, employed from 1979 until 1997 mostly in Western Washington.

Charges of promoting a suicide attempt and conspiracy to commit theft in the first degree were filed against Kenneth Varner last May. Mansfield said they believe the son retrieved the weapon from the scene and got rid of it.

Kendra Varner, the widow of James Varner, said after the charges were filed she did not believe her husband would kill himself and ask his son to come and remove the gun.

The bulk of the more than $2.3 million in life insurance on the senior Varner was acquired in the last 18 or so months of his life, according to charging documents.

Shortly after James Varner ‘s death, authorities revealed he, his son and a third man were being investigated in an insurance fraud scheme related to a falsely-reported-as-stolen antique car.

Charging documents in the case include allegations the father facilitated bank transactions for his son’s business deals, which the son conducted under an alias. Detective Kimsey was told the younger Varner worked as a free-lance realtor in Mexico.

Puerto Vallarta has been Kenneth Varner’s home for several years.

Kenneth Varner was also wanted in an entirely separate case – for theft related to some $7,000 from a bid to replace a roof of a business partner’s building in Centralia in 2006.

Defense attorney Bob Schroeter told a judge this afternoon said his client has no regular income, no liquid assets and qualified for a court-appointed lawyer.

Judge Nelson Hunt assigned the case to Centralia attorney J.P. Enbody.

Kenneth Varner is scheduled to for an arraignment next Thursday.

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Read background on the case, here