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Newspaper Archive of
Shelton Mason County Journal
Shelton, Washington
July 29, 1999     Shelton Mason County Journal
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July 29, 1999
 
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kkJ PvqP* ; qO{::t ENBA (:'H EP, ', v,' O$ !NC ::,,,3 .',,'K 2. IC: AVE :'L','T L,r',ND O ,07,2 %; i I I , ::ii I L ,L, :i ¸, Slipping away to the fair at the Mason County Fair three-day extravaganzaS, More photos weekend enjoyed sunshine most of can be found on pages 14 and 15, and and found plenty of down-to- the results of many of the fair's corn- things to do at the expanded petitions are on page 16. burglar knocks over .elton pawnshop for guns streets before losing the scent, more easily than anything else uns were stolen Dick's Daughter's by a man who broke a on Second Street early police said. was reported to Police Department at by two patrons of the which is right across Pawnshop at 123 South feet in Shelton. Officer responded to the minutes, but by then :t had grabbed the guns scene. nterviewed one wit- Ln front of the pawnshop. Was described as a in black. T "came up to of the pawnshop and Lt What (the witness) de- .s a club or a pipe from bag he was carrying the window," Police "Johnny" Johnston )etective Rocky Pfitzer and "e graveyard shift re- the call. They conduct- search of the area but they didn't an in black. The Lacey Lrtment lent Shelton a police dog that SUspect to the city at Fourth and Cots IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII the inside ...................... . ...... ,,13 Calendar .......... 7 .31 g ..... 22 13 ..26 ...4 .23 .22 "'""......................... 32 IIIIIII Johnston said. Johnston thinks the burglar may be a professional because he spent less than a minute inside the pawnshop and was not dis- tracted from the crime by people yelling at him from the Town Pub. "He didn't even respond to that yelling. He didn't pay attention. He didn't look at them. He knew exactly what he was going to get and he was gone," Johnston said. THE BURGLAR made off with two .25-caliber Raven handguns, a .32-caliber Davis handgun and one .25-caliber Lor- cin handgun. Johnston said the fact that the burglar stole handguns instead of other things also suggests that he is a profes- sional. "Guns are easily disposed of," he said. "They're turned into cash because they're a fairly popular item." Johnston said pawnshops are a typical destination for stolen guns because a private person doesn't have to prove ownership to a pawnbroker. Pawnbrokers are re- quired to give police a record of items that are pawned or sold but some don't always do that. "Those guns are going to end up in circulation somewhere, whether they're going to be sold to another pawnshop or sold to in- dividuals on the street," Johnston said. Johnston said the pawnshops in Shelton do a good job of keep- ing records of items that are pur- chased or pawned. He said he didn't know what kind of records were kept on handguns stolen from Dumb Dick's Daughter's Pawn Shop. Four more Shelton brush fires probed State and local authorities are investigating four small fires ig- nited Tuesday night in the brush south of the cemetery on West C Street. The first fire, near the 1500 block of Monroe Street, was re- ported to Shelton Communica- tions Center, the emergency dis- patch agency, at 5:45 p.m. That fire spread to a tree stump. "It was burning into the stump," said Lieutenant Bobby Rabelo of the Shelton Fire De- partment. That posed a special problem since such a fire can smolder for a while and then reig- nite small fuel in the area. "You're not done until you can touch it with your bare hand and it's cool," Rabelo said. • TO BE ON the safe side Shel- ton fire fighters had to cut a trail around the area charred by the fire and dug out the stump. About three hours later, at 8:42 p.m., Shel-Com received another call about a fire near the 700 block of West C Street about 320 yards from the stump. Shel- ton fire fighters found three sepa- rate fires between 10 by 10 and 10 by 30 feet in size. Responding to these fires were 14 firefighters from Shelton Fire Department and fire districts 5 and 11. Forester Jerry Kvale of the Washington Department of Natural Resources was also at the scene. "We made the initial response and got the fires pretty well knocked down," said Shelton Fire Chief Dan Ward. "The DNR (Please turn to page 3.) Primary election will be conducted by mail only Mason County voters will be casting their ballots by mail in September's primary election. The Mason County commissioners, at their meeting Tuesday evening, followed the lead of the Shelton City Commission when they concurred with the auditor's rec- ommendation to conduct this year's prim- ary election by mail. The purpose is twofold, Auditor A1 Brotche told the board Tuesday. First, he said, he anticipates a cost savings of about $10,000. Operating polling places entails about $9,500 to pay the poll workers and another $1,500 for polling place rentals. Increased voter turnout should be another benefit of voting by mail, Brotche noted. Currently about 8,500 people, or one-third of the county's voting population, use absentee ballots so the county is "essentially conduct- ing two elections," one by absentee and another at the polling places, each time there is a voting issue. Brotche offered figures from past odd- year elections to support his prediction. In a 1995 primary election which relied on poll- ing places the turnout was 25.8 percent and in 1997, it was 35.7 percent, he reported. But when the auditor's office conducted an all- mail vote on the Mariner stadium issue on June 17, 1997, the turnout was 64 percent, he continued. When that election was held, signatures had to be verified by hand. Brotche says his office now has imagining equipment which can read the signatures and verify them with registration cards. State statute allows county auditors to conduct all-mail elections in odd- numbered years for primaries involving nonpartisan positions. The concurrence of the local legislative groups is required, Brotche said. He got that affirmation at the end of June from the Shelton City Commis- sion, and the county commission made it official Tuesday. Voters get their ballots 20 days before the election date, and the ballots must be post- marked no later than the election date, Brotche explained. Postage costs will be handled as election costs are, with the bill- ings to the junior taxing districts, such as schools and ports. How many districts will need to conduct primary elections will not be known until after the filing deadline this Friday, he said. Few races develop in filings There will be at least a three- way scramble for a seat on the Shelton City Commission as fil- ings for next September's primary election ballot continue through the end of this week. Dick Taylor, Kelly Buechel and Carolyn Kerr have all signed up at the Mason County Elections Department to run for commis- sioner of finance to replace John Tarrant, who is running for mayor. So far Tarrant is the only candidate to file to replace Scott Hilburn, who is stepping down af- ter one term. Former Mason County Com- missioner Marv Faughender is seeking a term on the Port of Shelton. The incumbent currently holding the position that Faughender covets, George Ra- dich, has yet to file. Incumbent hlton School Board members Jim Smith and Ross Gallagher have filed for re- election, but incumbent Annette McGee has yet to file. Roberta Brownstein has filed for McGee's position on the board. As filings continue through Friday, a number of positions on various rural school boards, fire districts, port commissions and others remained vacant Wednes- day afternoon. Candidates who filed as of 4 p.m. Wednesday in- cluded: * Shelton City Commission - John Tarrant, Mayor; Dick Taylor, Kelly M.D. Buechel, Caro- lyn Kerr, Commissioner of Finance. • Shelton School District - Jim Smith, District 1; Ross Gallagher, District 2; Roberta Brownstein, (Please turn to page 3.) Thursday, July 29, 1999 113th Year - Number 30 4 Sections - 36 Pages 50 Cents Boy, 15, convicted of trapper's murder A 15-year-old Centralia youth was convicted of first-degree mur- der Friday after a brief bench trial in Mason County Superior Court. Nathan Clay Hughes, 15, of 1030 South Tower Street, Centra- lia, and his cousin, 19-year-old James Wayne Anderson of 2241 East Agate Road, Shelton, face upwards of 20 years in prison for the January 4 beating and stran- gulation death of Ronald Kerr, a 70-year-old Olympia trapper. Anderson pled guilty to the crime on May 26. Defense attor- ney James Dixon said Hughes opted for a bench trial to preserve his right to appeal while avoiding the trauma of a jury trial. "He is not at all interested in proceeding to a trial where not only would he be convicted but (which) would also result in the process of a trial and would result in the family members of the vic- tim going through even more trauma than they've already been through. It would also put his own family through trauma and so he frankly has no interest in taking this to a jury," Dixon said. Dixon said the stage was set for a bench trial after Judge James Sawyer rejected a defense motion to exclude Hughes' confes- sion from evidence. Hughes and Anderson con- fessed to killing Kerr in Ander- son's house by beating him with the bowl from a blender and kick- ing him in the head before stran- gling him with an electrical cord, according to prosecutors. Their motive was to steal his 1988 Ford Ranger, according to court pa- pers. The cousins were arrested two days after the murder when the Ford Ranger was spotted in a parking lot in Port Townsend. Sawyer found that the two drove the Ranger to Port Town- send and left it unattended in the hope that it might be stolen. "They left tle keys in the Ranger hoping somebody would steal it and thus get 'tagged' with the murder," he said. Hughes made the decision to let Judge Sawyer sit as both judge and jury in his murder trial. "To his credit he has from day one understood that this is nearly if not an impossible case for him. There are no real defens- es available," Dixon said. Hughes can now base an ap- peal on the claim that Deputy Jim Petraitis of the Mason Coun- ty Sheriffs Office did not ask Hughes during a taped interview if he understood his "Miranda warning" about his constitutional rights. Petraitis reportedly asked him if he understood the warning while the tape recorder was off. Judge Sawyer didn't hear any testimony, but based his verdict on readings of the evidence pre- par-,d by Dixon and Deputy Pros- ecutor Reinhold Schuetz. "The record would appear to in- dicate that he was the principal arty putting the ligature to Mr. rr," Sawyer said. "He also par- ticipated in blud{eoning and kick- ing Kerr in the head." An autopsy made no finding as to whether Kerr's death was caused by strangulation or boat- ing. However, Sawyer said evi- dence suggested the attack was Hughes' idea. The judge found that "the rob- bery was principally determined to go forward by this defendant, Nathan Hughes, that Mr. Hughes intended to go forward with the robbery by hitting Mr. Kerr over the head." Sentencing for Anderson and Hughes has been set for August 19. Sawyer ordered Hughes held until then. "I will at the time of sentencing be offering the victim's family the opportunity to be heard," the judge said. Anderson and Hughes will also have an op- portunity to say a few words at that time. Squaxin Island Indian Tribe rebuilds culture Squaxin tribal elders help break ground for the Fletcher, June Novell, Paula Henry, Shirley Lope- Squaxin Island Museum Library and Research Cen- man, Mary Fletcher and Buddy Cooper. Cooper was ter last week in Kamilche. From left to right are honored at the ceremony a8 the eldest member of the Dewey Sigo, Herb Johns, Don Brownfield, Harry Case Inlet Clan. A stow appears on page 2. kkJ PvqP* ; qO{::t ENBA (:'H EP, ', v,' O$ !NC ::,,,3 .',,'K 2. IC: AVE :'L','T L,r',ND O ,07,2 %; i I I , ::ii I L ,L, :i ¸, Slipping away to the fair at the Mason County Fair three-day extravaganzaS, More photos weekend enjoyed sunshine most of can be found on pages 14 and 15, and and found plenty of down-to- the results of many of the fair's corn- things to do at the expanded petitions are on page 16. burglar knocks over .elton pawnshop for guns streets before losing the scent, more easily than anything else uns were stolen Dick's Daughter's by a man who broke a on Second Street early police said. was reported to Police Department at by two patrons of the which is right across Pawnshop at 123 South feet in Shelton. Officer responded to the minutes, but by then :t had grabbed the guns scene. nterviewed one wit- Ln front of the pawnshop. Was described as a in black. T "came up to of the pawnshop and Lt What (the witness) de- .s a club or a pipe from bag he was carrying the window," Police "Johnny" Johnston )etective Rocky Pfitzer and "e graveyard shift re- the call. They conduct- search of the area but they didn't an in black. The Lacey Lrtment lent Shelton a police dog that SUspect to the city at Fourth and Cots IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII the inside ...................... . ...... ,,13 Calendar .......... 7 .31 g ..... 22 13 ..26 ...4 .23 .22 "'""......................... 32 IIIIIII Johnston said. Johnston thinks the burglar may be a professional because he spent less than a minute inside the pawnshop and was not dis- tracted from the crime by people yelling at him from the Town Pub. "He didn't even respond to that yelling. He didn't pay attention. He didn't look at them. He knew exactly what he was going to get and he was gone," Johnston said. THE BURGLAR made off with two .25-caliber Raven handguns, a .32-caliber Davis handgun and one .25-caliber Lor- cin handgun. Johnston said the fact that the burglar stole handguns instead of other things also suggests that he is a profes- sional. "Guns are easily disposed of," he said. "They're turned into cash because they're a fairly popular item." Johnston said pawnshops are a typical destination for stolen guns because a private person doesn't have to prove ownership to a pawnbroker. Pawnbrokers are re- quired to give police a record of items that are pawned or sold but some don't always do that. "Those guns are going to end up in circulation somewhere, whether they're going to be sold to another pawnshop or sold to in- dividuals on the street," Johnston said. Johnston said the pawnshops in Shelton do a good job of keep- ing records of items that are pur- chased or pawned. He said he didn't know what kind of records were kept on handguns stolen from Dumb Dick's Daughter's Pawn Shop. Four more Shelton brush fires probed State and local authorities are investigating four small fires ig- nited Tuesday night in the brush south of the cemetery on West C Street. The first fire, near the 1500 block of Monroe Street, was re- ported to Shelton Communica- tions Center, the emergency dis- patch agency, at 5:45 p.m. That fire spread to a tree stump. "It was burning into the stump," said Lieutenant Bobby Rabelo of the Shelton Fire De- partment. That posed a special problem since such a fire can smolder for a while and then reig- nite small fuel in the area. "You're not done until you can touch it with your bare hand and it's cool," Rabelo said. • TO BE ON the safe side Shel- ton fire fighters had to cut a trail around the area charred by the fire and dug out the stump. About three hours later, at 8:42 p.m., Shel-Com received another call about a fire near the 700 block of West C Street about 320 yards from the stump. Shel- ton fire fighters found three sepa- rate fires between 10 by 10 and 10 by 30 feet in size. Responding to these fires were 14 firefighters from Shelton Fire Department and fire districts 5 and 11. Forester Jerry Kvale of the Washington Department of Natural Resources was also at the scene. "We made the initial response and got the fires pretty well knocked down," said Shelton Fire Chief Dan Ward. "The DNR (Please turn to page 3.) Primary election will be conducted by mail only Mason County voters will be casting their ballots by mail in September's primary election. The Mason County commissioners, at their meeting Tuesday evening, followed the lead of the Shelton City Commission when they concurred with the auditor's rec- ommendation to conduct this year's prim- ary election by mail. The purpose is twofold, Auditor A1 Brotche told the board Tuesday. First, he said, he anticipates a cost savings of about $10,000. Operating polling places entails about $9,500 to pay the poll workers and another $1,500 for polling place rentals. Increased voter turnout should be another benefit of voting by mail, Brotche noted. Currently about 8,500 people, or one-third of the county's voting population, use absentee ballots so the county is "essentially conduct- ing two elections," one by absentee and another at the polling places, each time there is a voting issue. Brotche offered figures from past odd- year elections to support his prediction. In a 1995 primary election which relied on poll- ing places the turnout was 25.8 percent and in 1997, it was 35.7 percent, he reported. But when the auditor's office conducted an all- mail vote on the Mariner stadium issue on June 17, 1997, the turnout was 64 percent, he continued. When that election was held, signatures had to be verified by hand. Brotche says his office now has imagining equipment which can read the signatures and verify them with registration cards. State statute allows county auditors to conduct all-mail elections in odd- numbered years for primaries involving nonpartisan positions. The concurrence of the local legislative groups is required, Brotche said. He got that affirmation at the end of June from the Shelton City Commis- sion, and the county commission made it official Tuesday. Voters get their ballots 20 days before the election date, and the ballots must be post- marked no later than the election date, Brotche explained. Postage costs will be handled as election costs are, with the bill- ings to the junior taxing districts, such as schools and ports. How many districts will need to conduct primary elections will not be known until after the filing deadline this Friday, he said. Few races develop in filings There will be at least a three- way scramble for a seat on the Shelton City Commission as fil- ings for next September's primary election ballot continue through the end of this week. Dick Taylor, Kelly Buechel and Carolyn Kerr have all signed up at the Mason County Elections Department to run for commis- sioner of finance to replace John Tarrant, who is running for mayor. So far Tarrant is the only candidate to file to replace Scott Hilburn, who is stepping down af- ter one term. Former Mason County Com- missioner Marv Faughender is seeking a term on the Port of Shelton. The incumbent currently holding the position that Faughender covets, George Ra- dich, has yet to file. Incumbent hlton School Board members Jim Smith and Ross Gallagher have filed for re- election, but incumbent Annette McGee has yet to file. Roberta Brownstein has filed for McGee's position on the board. As filings continue through Friday, a number of positions on various rural school boards, fire districts, port commissions and others remained vacant Wednes- day afternoon. Candidates who filed as of 4 p.m. Wednesday in- cluded: * Shelton City Commission - John Tarrant, Mayor; Dick Taylor, Kelly M.D. Buechel, Caro- lyn Kerr, Commissioner of Finance. • Shelton School District - Jim Smith, District 1; Ross Gallagher, District 2; Roberta Brownstein, (Please turn to page 3.) Thursday, July 29, 1999 113th Year - Number 30 4 Sections - 36 Pages 50 Cents Boy, 15, convicted of trapper's murder A 15-year-old Centralia youth was convicted of first-degree mur- der Friday after a brief bench trial in Mason County Superior Court. Nathan Clay Hughes, 15, of 1030 South Tower Street, Centra- lia, and his cousin, 19-year-old James Wayne Anderson of 2241 East Agate Road, Shelton, face upwards of 20 years in prison for the January 4 beating and stran- gulation death of Ronald Kerr, a 70-year-old Olympia trapper. Anderson pled guilty to the crime on May 26. Defense attor- ney James Dixon said Hughes opted for a bench trial to preserve his right to appeal while avoiding the trauma of a jury trial. "He is not at all interested in proceeding to a trial where not only would he be convicted but (which) would also result in the process of a trial and would result in the family members of the vic- tim going through even more trauma than they've already been through. It would also put his own family through trauma and so he frankly has no interest in taking this to a jury," Dixon said. Dixon said the stage was set for a bench trial after Judge James Sawyer rejected a defense motion to exclude Hughes' confes- sion from evidence. Hughes and Anderson con- fessed to killing Kerr in Ander- son's house by beating him with the bowl from a blender and kick- ing him in the head before stran- gling him with an electrical cord, according to prosecutors. Their motive was to steal his 1988 Ford Ranger, according to court pa- pers. The cousins were arrested two days after the murder when the Ford Ranger was spotted in a parking lot in Port Townsend. Sawyer found that the two drove the Ranger to Port Town- send and left it unattended in the hope that it might be stolen. "They left tle keys in the Ranger hoping somebody would steal it and thus get 'tagged' with the murder," he said. Hughes made the decision to let Judge Sawyer sit as both judge and jury in his murder trial. "To his credit he has from day one understood that this is nearly if not an impossible case for him. There are no real defens- es available," Dixon said. Hughes can now base an ap- peal on the claim that Deputy Jim Petraitis of the Mason Coun- ty Sheriffs Office did not ask Hughes during a taped interview if he understood his "Miranda warning" about his constitutional rights. Petraitis reportedly asked him if he understood the warning while the tape recorder was off. Judge Sawyer didn't hear any testimony, but based his verdict on readings of the evidence pre- par-,d by Dixon and Deputy Pros- ecutor Reinhold Schuetz. "The record would appear to in- dicate that he was the principal arty putting the ligature to Mr. rr," Sawyer said. "He also par- ticipated in blud{eoning and kick- ing Kerr in the head." An autopsy made no finding as to whether Kerr's death was caused by strangulation or boat- ing. However, Sawyer said evi- dence suggested the attack was Hughes' idea. The judge found that "the rob- bery was principally determined to go forward by this defendant, Nathan Hughes, that Mr. Hughes intended to go forward with the robbery by hitting Mr. Kerr over the head." Sentencing for Anderson and Hughes has been set for August 19. Sawyer ordered Hughes held until then. "I will at the time of sentencing be offering the victim's family the opportunity to be heard," the judge said. Anderson and Hughes will also have an op- portunity to say a few words at that time. Squaxin Island Indian Tribe rebuilds culture Squaxin tribal elders help break ground for the Fletcher, June Novell, Paula Henry, Shirley Lope- Squaxin Island Museum Library and Research Cen- man, Mary Fletcher and Buddy Cooper. Cooper was ter last week in Kamilche. From left to right are honored at the ceremony a8 the eldest member of the Dewey Sigo, Herb Johns, Don Brownfield, Harry Case Inlet Clan. A stow appears on page 2.