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Morton mother recovering from stabbing, teen son remains locked up

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The 15-year-old Morton boy locked up for allegedly stabbing his mother told police he was upset, that she’d laughed about him twice to other people that afternoon and he’d had enough.

She told him to get a towel to wrap around her arm, and he did, according to court documents. But after 35-year-old Rhiannon Foister went downstairs to the living room, fell beneath a table and told him to get her something to put on her wounds, he told her no, that he wanted her to hurt like he had for the past 15 years, the documents state.

And the teen walked out the door to stand in the driveway to wait for police.

Morton Police Department Police Chief Dan Mortensen said he was called around 3:35 p.m. Monday to the home at the 800 block of Overlook Drive in the East Lewis County town. The boy told the chief he stabbed his mother and so he was handcuffed and put in the back of a patrol car, according to the documents.

His brother and sister were home when it happened. Foister was transported to Morton General Hospital and then flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle for additional treatment.

A hospital spokesperson said yesterday morning Foister was listed in satisfactory condition.

The teen was booked into the Lewis County Juvenile Detention Center, and charged on Tuesday with second-degree assault.

A juvenile court judge at a detention hearing the same day ordered him held at least until his arraignment next Tuesday, according to Lewis County Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecutor Brad Meagher.

That’s also when a trial date and pre-trial hearing will be scheduled, Meagher said.

Court documents, based on the police reports, indicate the police chief recovered a knife about 14 inches long which the boy said he’d gotten out of the kitchen.

Mortensen told Meagher the mother had five to seven stab wounds, including  one to her chest, but he had yet to get a full statement from her.

The documents give the following account, mostly from the 15-year-old’s conversation with police:

The boy said he’d called his mother from school, to ask if he could walk his girlfriend home from school and then walk the rest of the way home, but she said no, she’d pick him up and did so.

That upset him, and then his mother was talking with another mother, and laughing about him not being able to walk his girlfriend home, he told police.

“She said he was going to be turned in to his juvenile probation officer for violating his conditions of release,” the boy related.

Once they got home, the two continued their disagreement, and after he went upstairs to his room, he could hear his mother talking on the phone to someone else, laughing and saying she was going to call his probation officer, he said.

The boy told police he’d had enough.

He went into the living room and told his siblings to leave, because he and his mother were going to have serious conversation.

He asked his mother to walk to her bedroom, where she sat down on the bed and they faced off.

“(He) stated he pulled out the knife and wanted to scare her and show her how serious he was,” court documents state. “He stated he hadn’t intended to stab her with it, only to scare her.”

His mother said go ahead and stab her, if that’s what he was going to do, the boy related to police.

The teen paused and began crying, but after encouraged by the officer to continue, said he lunged at his mom and stabbed her in the arm. She moved away, and he stabbed her in the leg. They continued yelling at each other.

“He added he knew what was happening but was also kind of blacked out,” the documents state.

The siblings came to see what the yelling and screaming was about, and they all ended up back down stairs.

Mortensen describes he and a deputy responding, and arriving to find one juvenile throwing items around the porch saying he was going to kill the boy for stabbing his mother, seeing a pool of blood around Foister’s feet, and then a girl who helped the chief put direct pressure on a towel on Foister’s leg while he spoke with a 911 dispatcher to get aid.

The teen told the chief his probation was for smoking pot and truancy.

The boy told police he went outside to wait for police, and also said he didn’t want to remain inside and watch his mother bleed out.

Chief Mortensen on Tuesday morning described the reason for the assault only as “family issues, apparently”.

The boy is represented by Centralia attorney David Brown.

He’s 15, so he will not automatically sent to adult court, according to Meagher.