By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – John Allen Booth Jr. is back.
The convicted triple-murderer who once called Onalaska home was sent to prison for life in December 2011, but was booked into the Lewis County Jail this morning.
[1]John Allen Booth Jr.
Booth, now 33, filed a post-trial motion which will be heard by a Lewis County Superior Court judge.
Lewis County Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecutor Brad Meagher said it isn’t related to the evidence that turned up [2] in the coroner’s office several weeks after the conviction.
Meagher called it a “collateral attack”.
Booth was convicted in the shooting deaths of David West Sr., 52, David “D.J.” West Jr., 16, and 50-year-old Tony Williams of Randle. The three, along with Denise Salts who survived a gunshot, were found in the home Salts and the Wests shared on Wings Way in the Onalaska-Salkum area on August 21, 2010.
Last year about this time, Lewis County Coroner Warren McLeod said finger nail clippings and hair trimmings from all three victims were found in a sealed bag in the work locker of a former deputy coroner. The materials had no “chain of custody” documentation, nor did they get into the hands of law enforcement or attorneys in the case.
Both Booth’s attorney and Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer said it was a potential appeal issue for Booth.
Booth is scheduled to go before Judge Richard Brosey at 2:30 p.m. on Monday to set a date for the motion hearing.
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For background, read “Report: Triple murderer surprisingly charming and well-mannered” from Monday December 19, 2011, here [3]