April 5, 2012 Shelton Mason County Journal | ![]() |
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Thursday, April 5, 2012 -- Week 14
The Voice of Mason County since 1886 -- Published for Mason County and Rosetta LaClair of the Skokomish Nation-- $1
Documents say 23-year-old man beaten to
death with baseball bat; 2 suspects being heM
By KEVAN MOORE
kevan@masoncounty.com
A pair of Shelton men, original-
ly arrested for first-degree assault
and robbery, now face felony "mur-
der charges following the death of
the victim in the case.
Travis Carl Baze, 28, and Ste-
phen R.C. Churchill, 29, are
charged With murdering 23-year-
old Shelton resident Shawn Jo-
seph Morrow. They are being
held in the Mason County Jail on
$250,000 and $350,000 bail, re-
spectively.
According to court documents,
Baze and Churchill lured Mor-
row to the public fishing area in
the 3900 block
of State Route
3 on March 26,
to purportedly
sell him heroin.
Police say that
when Morrow ar-
rived, Churchill
hit him twice in
the head with a
Shawn metal baseball
Morrow bat.
Court docu-
ments state that
Baze and Churchill drove to the
pre-determined meeting point
around 2 p.m. and waited for Mor-
row to arrive.
"Inside the car with them
was a metal baseball bat that
Churchill had brought from his get back into his vehicle and drive ing bleeding caused by a severed
residence. Prior to Morrow's arriv- himself across the highway to the artery...On March 29 at 3:01 p.m.,
al, Churchill exited Baze's vehicle Bayshore Grocery Store where pa- Morrow succumbed to the injuries
and hid near a nearby portable trons observed him sitting in his he suffered as a result of being
restroom on the property. Upon car covered in blood, struck in the head with a baseball
Morrow's arrival he parked near Morrow was transported by am- bat on March 26 and died at Saint
Baze's car, exited his vehicle, and bulance to Mason General Hospi- Peter's Hospital in Olympia."
approached the driver's door of tal where a CT scan confirmed that Police say that shortly after the
Baze's car on foot. Upon reaching he was suffering from a significant attack, Churchill and Baze were
Baze's door, Churchill stepped out skull fracture and subdural hema- arrested and a bat believed to be
from his hidinglocation and struck toma. Morrow was then transport- the one used in the attack was re-
Morrow in the head twice with the ed via ambulance to Saint Peter's covered lrom Churchill's bedroom.
metal baseball bat, knocking Mor- Hospital in Olympia where he was According to police, both Baze and
row to the ground and causing his treated by a neurosurgeon and ad- Churchill admitted their involve-
head to bleed." mitted into the Critical Care Unit. ment in the attack.
According to a probable cause "Around 4:30 a.m. on March 27, According to court documents,
statement, Baze arranged the Morrow's condition worsened as the attack was retribution for
meeting with Morrow via voice- the bleeding and pressure on his Morrow allegedly burglarizing the
mail and textmessage and Morrow brain increased and he was tak- home of Churchill and his girl-
did not know that Churchill would en in for emergency surgery," the friend, Jennifer Hansen, in early
be present. After the attack, Baze probable cause statement says. February while the couple was in
and Churchill are alleged to have "During the surgery, surgeons had custody at the Mason County Jail
stolen $45 from Morrow that he to remove a portion of Morrow's for narcotics violations. Hansen
had brought to purchase the her- skull to alleviate the building pres-
oin. Morrow somehow managed to sure on his brain due to the ongo- See Murder on page A-S
in
Mason
County
By KEVAN MOORE
kevan@masoncounty,com
The Shelton Police De-
partment has released its
annual crime report for
2011.
Perhaps the most notice-
~h],e,,fig~re from the report
is a 137-percent reduction
in robberies.
"It obviously went down
a lot, but there was an un-
usual spike in 2010 and it
has basically gone down to
the usual single-digit rate of
eight or nine robberies, per
year," said Shelton Police
Chief Dave Eklund.
Crime in the city was
down in other areas, too.
Sex offenses went down by
seven percent and the prop-
efty crimes of theft and auto
thefts, were down 14 per-
cent and 16 percent.
"I think those decreases
are partly due to our Crime
Prevention Program that
we've had for the last few
years," Chief Eklund said.
"It's been really effective."
That crime prevention
program, though, saw a
decrease in January. With
the loss of one officer po-
sition at the department,
Chief Eklund combined the
school resource officer and
the crime prevention offi-
cer .into one position. The
school resource officer obvi-
ously works with the schools
.while the crime prevention
position entails meeting
with business owners and
homeowners to increase se-
curity and prevent crime.
In 2011, the police depart-
ment responded to 10,604
calls for service, 2,829 case
reports were generated,
the officers issued a total of
1,566 citations, handled 214
reportable accidents and
there were 28 traffic offens-
es where drugs were found.
While robberies, sex of-
fenses and thefts were
down, the city saw a spike in
burglaries with 80 in 2010
and 130 in 2011,
According to the report,
detectives worked 422 cases
in 2011 and cleared 190 of
them compared to 450 cases
worked in 2010 with 145
that were cleared.
See Report on page A-5
81111!!Ul!!II!!UI;I!IIII2
Regina Lawrence, supervisor for WorkSource in Mason County, left, and Jeanie House, a
have helped Micky Jones and others find jobs in Mason County despite a poor economy.
Journal photos by Natalie Johnson
reemployment specialist,
WorkSource helps job seekers were unemployed in Mason County in Jan-
uary 2012, the department reports.
Neighboring counties show similar
By NATALIE JOHNSON trends for 2011. Thurston County's unem-
natalie@rnasoneounty.com ployment rate dropped from 8.9 percent to.
8.3 percent, Kitsap County's dropped from
8.6 per~nt to 7.9 percent and Grays Harbor
The Washington State Employment Se-County's unemployment dropped from 14.6
curity Department announced last month percent to 13.8 percent.
that Mason County's unemployment rate Todd Dixon, area director for Mason
dropped one full percentage point between County WorkSource said he has seen a posi-
January 2011 and January 2012, from 12.5 tive change in the community.
percent to 11.5 percent. "Overall there's just a look and feel in the
More specifically, out of a workforce of community that the economy is improving,"
24,190, 21,400 were employed and 2,790 he said. "More and more job seekers are go-
ing to work."
Over the past year, traffic in the Mason
County WorkSource has decreased showing
that fewer people need the services the or-
ganization provides, Dixon said.
"We serve at WorkSource people who are
unemployed but also people who are under-
employed," he said "The number we serve
on unemployment has remained steady."
Regina Lawrence, supervisor for Work-
Source in Mason County, said the local of-
fice has helped many people find jobs in the
last year, contributing to the county's drop-
See Unemployment on page A-5
Hood Canal School searches for leader
By NATALIE JOHNSON
natalie@masoncoun ty.com
The Hood Canal School District
is on the hunt for a new superinten-
dent for the 2012/2013 school year.
On March 29, Tom Churchill,
Hood Canal School District super-
intendent and principal, announced
that he had accepted a job as super-
intendent of the Meridian School
District in Bellingham.
"I've enjoyed my time here," he
said. "It's a nice career step for me.
The district has a lot of new things
happening there."
Churchill started at the Hood Ca-
nal School District
as its assistant su-
perintendent/prin-
cipal in 2007.
"The superin-
tendent that was
here left mid-year
so I picked up his
duties about the
turn of 2008 and
Tom finished out the
Churchill year for him,"
Churchill said.
While the past
four years have been challenging,
Churchill said the district had made
See School on page A-5
City looks for input
on park renovations
By NATALIE JOHNSON and Chestnut Street. North-
nataIie@masoncounty.com cliff Park is on Northcliff
Road near Holly Court and
Terrace View Drive.
The Shelton Metropolitan "The neighborhood parks
Park District hopes to devel- are the highest "ranking
ope two parks in the city in projects within our park
the next few years, and is plan, so we chose these two
looking for citizen input, specific parks because we al-
The two proposed areas ready have property," Parks
are the Johnson and North- and Recreation Director
cliff neighborhood parks. Mark Ziegler said. "They're
Johnson Park is located on
the corner of Tobin Avenue See Park on page A-5