By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
A toddler died in an apparent drowning in a backyard pool in Bucoda last night.
The preliminary investigation indicates it was a tragic accident, according to Tenino police.
Police and aid responded shortly after 8 p.m. to the home on the 300 block of Nenant Street where a 21-year-old relative who was babysitting had pulled the boy from the water, according to Tenino Police Chief Sean Gallagher.
A police officer started CPR and a a medivac helicopter was asked to respond to the park in Bucoda, he said.
“When the helicopter arrived, it had been 45 minutes, he just never came back, he never responded,” Gallagher said.
According to the chief, the young woman said she had been away from the children only about two minutes when she heard screaming. She found the toddler’s 6-year-old brother struggling to keep the child afloat in the four-foot-high pool, according to the chief.
The 19-month-old child is Landon “Charlie” Lehman, according to Thurston County Coroner Gary Warnock.
A final determination will be made after an autopsy on Thursday, according to Warnock.
John A. Booth Jr.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
Law enforcement believes the second two murders in Onalaska were committed in part to eliminate witnesses from the first killing, according to court documents filed in the weekend triple homicide case.
Charges filed late yesterday against John Allen Booth Jr. include a count of extortion. The 31-year-old suspect from Onalaska is still at large and considered armed and extremely dangerous.
The details of what happened inside the house off Gore Road early Saturday morning remain sketchy, as a judge sealed the affidavit of probable cause, the document describing the evidence that accompanies the information document filed when an individual is charged with a felony.
John A. Booth Jr.
At least three witnesses survived the shootings and their lives are at risk as long as Booth isn’t caught, prosecutors wrote in their declaration asking Lewis County Superior Court Judge Richard Brosey to seal part of the file. One witness is a 51-year-old listed yesterday afternoon as in stable condition, whose gender authorities have not confirmed.
Booth is charged with two counts of first-degree murder, one count of second-degree murder, and one count of attempted first-degree murder.
The dead are David J. West Sr. 52, and his son David J. West Jr., 16, who lived in the sand-colored rambler and also Tony E. Williams, 50, of Mineral.
Booth is also charged with first-degree extortion and first-degree unlawful possession of a firearm. He is convicted felon who was just released in December from his third stay in prison.
Bail is set at $10 million.
Court documents accuse Booth of second-degree murder, intentionally causing the death of West Sr. They allege first-degree murder – premeditated and intended – in the slayings of West’s 16-year-old son David West Jr. and Tony E. Williams, 50, of Mineral.
The maximum penalty for those, and for attempted murder, is life in prison. The extortion and firearm possession each have a maximum penalty of 10 years.
Booth’s address is listed by the Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office as on the 1500 block of Middle Fork Road in Onalaska, the same place it has been since his first adult felony arrest when he was 18 years old.
An man described by the sheriff as a person of interest was booked yesterday morning into the Lewis County Jail. Lewis County Sheriff Steve Mansfield said the individual was picked up by the state Department of Corrections for a probation violation.
More later.
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For more details on the fatal shootings, either scroll down or click here.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
Almost 30 pigs perished in a barn fire in Winlock over the weekend.
The cause is still undetermined.
Firefighters from Lewis County Fire District 15 and three neighboring departments were called about 2:30 a.m. on Saturday to the blaze on the 1000 block of King Road.
The 100-foot by 50-foot barn, part of which was built probably in the late 1800s burned to the ground, and a tractor and the materials used for a grain mixing business were destroyed as well, according to Becky Dorothy who operates the Double D Farm with her husband Ron Dorothy.
“We lost two sows and their litters and our boar,” said Dorothy said. “On the bright side, our dog found one of the babies running around in the field behind the barn.”
The two litters of piglets were born just three weeks ago. The family’s St. Bernard sniffed out the surviving piglet last night, Dorothy said. It was thirsty, but surprisingly well given the dangers of coyotes and bobcats, she said, and it had just one little burn.
That part of the property wasn’t insured, but another seven or eight pigs were spared because they were at the Southwest Washington Fair.
The farm raises the animals for youngsters to show in FFA and 4H, she said, and for people to buy as locker pork.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
A $10 million warrant was issued late today for the arrest of John Allen Booth Jr. wanted for two counts of first-degree murder and one count of second-degree murder in connection with the slayings off Gore Road this weekend.
John A. Booth Jr.
The 31-year-old man from Onalaska is still at large.
Another person has been arrested and is in custody in the Lewis County Jail.
Lewis County Sheriff Steve Mansfield called the individual a person of interest in the case but declined to say more about what that meant. Mansfield said the individual was picked up by the state Department of Corrections for a probation violation.
Mansfield in a news release this afternoon said the survivor from the triple homicide is in stable condition. The sheriff said the fourth victim of Saturday’s early morning shootings is 51 years old. He still won’t reveal if that person is a male or a female.
Booth was just released in December from his third stint in Washington prisons.
When deputies arrived about 2:30 a.m. on Saturday to the Onalaska-area home, they found three dead. They are David J. West Sr. 52, and his son David J. West Jr., 16, who lived there and also Tony E. Williams, 50, of Mineral. The status of West Sr.s girlfriend who reportedly resided there hasn’t been revealed by the sheriff’s office.
The sheriff’s office released an updated photo of Booth and say he is still believed to be driving a turquoise 1995 Saturn Coupe, with a license plate of 319 UEB.
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For more details on the fatal shootings, either scroll down or click here.
David J. West Jr., 16, with his dad's motorcycle from the teenager's MySpace page
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
Sixteen-year-old Forrest Moore of Onalaska described his slain friend as a student who got “amazing” grades, with a father who kept a fairly tight leash on him and who looked forward to one day inheriting his dad’s root-beer colored show car, a 1968 442 Oldsmobile.
David J. West Jr., 16, was one of three people found shot dead inside his Onalaska area home early Saturday morning.
“He was a rare friend, he loved life, he never got in any trouble,” Forrest said yesterday. “He pretty much got to do whatever he wanted that was legal, he had a good life.”
David, who went by D.J. died along with his father David J. West Sr. 52, and Tony E. Williams, 50, of Mineral in the West’s rental home off Gore Road, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. A fourth individual who was wounded with a gunshot was hospitalized.
Authorities have issued a nationwide arrest warrant for the suspect, 31-year-old John Allen Booth Jr. from Onalaska.
The two teenagers became best friends when they were both new at Onalaska High School, according to Forrest. D.J. came from Mossyrock and Forrest moved to Gore Road from Centralia.
The two more or less kept to themselves because they were both the type who didn’t talk much, according to Forrest.
The teenagers hung out at D.J.’s house a lot, so much that when Forrest planned to stay over again Friday night, D.J.’s father said no, because he’d been spending the night so much lately. Forrest said it made his mother cry to know he easily could have been there when the shootings happened.
Forrest said his friend’s father was somewhat strict, giving his son a curfew but letting him do lots of things as long as he knew where his son was and how to get a hold of him.
“His dad was a really great dad for him , he was like his best friend,” Forrest said.
The boys spent one day late last week helping clean up rocks from around the West’s cement fish pond. “I made $40 and that’s the only reason I could go to the fair,” Forrest said.
He said D.J. recently confided in him how tough it was going to be when his dad went away to prison soon because he’d never really been away from him.
Forrest described D.J.’s father’s trouble as coming from when he and a friend beat up some kids.
West Sr. was arrested last summer after he and two other men allegedly ambushed several teenagers camping outside Winlock when West Sr. was reportedly trying to get back money he believed some of them had stolen from him. West. Sr. admitted hitting a 17-year-old boy with a jack handle, and retrieving $4,000, according to charging documents in his case. Another man, 45-year-old Robert S. Russell, allegedly brandished a handgun and fired a shot during the incident. West Sr. has pleaded guilty but his sentencing has been repeatedly postponed, according to court records.
Forrest said he doesn’t think the weekend killing was about a drug debt, like the sheriff’s office says. D.J.’s father didn’t seem like that kind of person, he said.
“He had a lot of friends over but I knew nothing about drugs, he seemed clean to me,” Forrest said. “I just want the true story to be told, I don’t want them slandered.”
The teenager said he even met the suspect Booth Jr. at D.J.’s house when he came over one night several weeks ago with another man.
“He was really big and really scary, but quite polite,” he said. He had really huge arms, he added. “He didn’t strike me as bad.”
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For more details on the fatal shootings, either scroll down or click here.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
The Spokesman-Review in Spokane reported Saturday police there had no reason to think John Allen Booth Jr. stayed in the area after he apparently gassed up a vehicle there.
Today they are reporting police believe the Onalaska man wanted in this weekend’s triple homicide in Lewis County has left the Spokane area.
You can read their coverage from Saturday here and from Sunday here.
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