{"id":4912,"date":"2011-02-11T21:25:58","date_gmt":"2011-02-12T05:25:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lewiscountysirens.com\/?p=4912"},"modified":"2011-02-13T02:46:43","modified_gmt":"2011-02-13T10:46:43","slug":"randle-murder-defendant-free-on-bail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/?p=4912","title":{"rendered":"Randle murder defendant free on bail"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"2011.0211.massa_2\"<\/a>

Erik R. Massa, center, waits for court to begin with his lawyers, Chris Baum, left and Joe Mano.<\/p><\/div>\n

By Sharyn\u00a0 L. Decker
\nLewis County Sirens news reporter<\/strong>
\n<\/strong>
\nCHEHALIS – Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecutor Brad Meagher asked a judge today to set bail in the Randle murder case at $25,000 unsecured, but with 10 percent of that posted with the court.<\/p>\n

The defendant, forty-three-year-old Erik R. Massa of Randle, was accompanied by two lawyers in Lewis County Superior Court this afternoon who agreed with the recommendation.<\/p>\n

\"2010.1210.guylafontaine.mug_2\"<\/a>

Guy LaFontaine<\/p><\/div>\n

Massa is charged with second-degree murder in the March death of Guy W. LaFontaine, 58, of Federal Way. The two men are related by marriage.<\/p>\n

Massa, a taxidermist, was arrested last March 14 after LaFontaine died from\u00a0 blunt force injuries to his head, torso and extremities and Lewis County sheriff’s detectives found evidence including a broken shotgun with blood on it in an empty silo next to Massa’s shop. He was released from jail three days later, with prosecutors telling a judge they did not yet have enough evidence to charge him.<\/p>\n

Meagher charged Massa last week with first-degree assault, but on Monday upgraded the charge.<\/p>\n

Six of LaFontaine’s family members and a former co-worker from Todd Shipyards in Seattle were in the Chehalis courtroom for this afternoon’s proceedings.<\/p>\n

Meagher told the judge he was confident about the bail arrangement since Massa has no criminal history and owns a home here. He asked the judge to limit Massa’s travel to Lewis County.<\/p>\n

Chehalis attorneys Joe Mano and Chris Baum are representing him.<\/p>\n

Baum said his client has already surrendered all his firearms to Mano.<\/p>\n

Judge Richard Brosey agreed with the bail arrangement.<\/p>\n

Charging documents describe a night in which LaFontaine – who had gone to Randle to go fishing – called his wife and said he had been beat up and he thought he was going to die.<\/p>\n

According to the documents: His wife Gail picked him up and took him to Morton General Hospital where they found both his eye sockets were broken and he had a broken arm.<\/p>\n

At 3:45 a.m., the hospital advised a sheriff’s deputy they released LaFontaine because they couldn’t keep him in his bed.<\/p>\n

LaFontaine’s wife took him to St. Francis Hospital in Federal Way where he was pronounced dead.<\/p>\n

The King County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled LaFontaine’s death a homicide.<\/p>\n

Massa’s arraignment was scheduled for Feb. 24.<\/p>\n

Massa is one of six people charged in Lewis County with murder for homicides that occurred during 2010. His is the only second-degree murder case.<\/p>\n

The others are:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Ronald A. Brady, 60, is charged with first-degree murder<\/a> for the April 19 shooting death in Onalaska of Thomas McKenzie, 56. Also, first-degree assault. Bail: $50,000 unsecured bond<\/p>\n

\u2022 Richard Joseph Frank Roth, 65, is charged with first degree murder for the Nov. 4 shooting death in Winlock of Jackie Marie Lawyer<\/a>, 64. Bail: $500,000<\/p>\n

\u2022 Jack A. Silverthorne, 20, is charged with first-degree murder<\/a> for the death of Austin King, 16, whose body was found in Morton on July 20. Bail: $2 million<\/p>\n

\u2022 Ryan J. McCarthy, 29, is charged<\/a> with three counts of first-degree murder in the Aug. 21 shooting deaths in the Salkum-Onalaska area of David West Sr., 52, David West Jr., 16, and Tony Williams, 50. Also extortion. Bail: $2 million<\/p>\n

\u2022 John A. Booth Jr., 31 is charged in the same deaths as McCarthy but with aggravated<\/a> first-degree murder for West Jr. and Williams and attempted first-degree murder of Denise Salts. Also extortion. Bail: $10 million
\n\u2022\u2022\u2022<\/p>\n

Read previous story on Massa and LaFontaine here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sharyn\u00a0 L. Decker Lewis County Sirens news reporter CHEHALIS – Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecutor Brad Meagher asked a judge today to set bail in the Randle murder case at $25,000 unsecured, but with 10 percent of that posted with the court. The defendant, forty-three-year-old Erik R. Massa of Randle, was accompanied by two lawyers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10],"class_list":["post-4912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-top-story","tag-by-sharyn-l-decker","tag-news-reporter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4912"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4912\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4918,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4912\/revisions\/4918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}