By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – Twenty-four-year-old Marcus T. Dantinne got to go home from jail yesterday evening, but he still faces a felony charge for allegedly threatening to blow up a Morton lumber mill.
Alta Forest Products was evacuated on Monday morning after an anonymous phone call that warned a bomb there would go off in 10 minutes. Within hours, police traced the call to Dantinne who reportedly took the phone apart so he wouldn’t be discovered.
Lewis County Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecutor Brad Meagher didn’t request very high bail for Dantinne, suggesting he’s not a terrorist, just somebody doing dumb and stupid stuff.
“It looks like he was helping somebody skip work,” Meagher said after a short bail hearing yesterday afternoon.
Lewis County Superior Court Judge Richard Brosey allowed Dantinne to be released from jail, on an unsecured $10,000 bond, co-signed by his mother, pending trial.
Dantinne lives with his mother in Morton.
According to charging documents, Dantinne told Police Chief Dan Mortensen at first that he’d lost the phone the previous night at the gym. But then he allegedly confessed: He wanted to get his friend Jordan Gillispie out of work, so they could hang out together.
The two had talked very early that morning, according to Dantinne’s mother who told the chief she overheard the call, charging documents state.
Some 60 workers were cleared out of the mill into its parking lot, following the approximately 7:45 a.m. call on Monday.
A bomb squad with the Washington State Patrol checked the property and found no explosive. Authorities evacuated Alta’s Shelton mill as well.
Employees were sent home for the day, although the swing shift was scheduled to start as usual, since a suspect was located by about noon.
Dantinne was charged with threat to bomb property, an offense with a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, and/or a $20,000 fine.
Defense attorney Joely O’Rourke was in favor of the bail arrangement.
“He’s young, he’s 24 and has absolutely no criminal history,” O’Rourke said.
Dantinne has a stable residence, with his mother, and has been receiving supplemental social security income since he was young, she said. She understood from him it was related to mental health issues, she said.
“He’s clearly very inexperienced with the system,” O’Rourke said,.
Dantinne was appointed a lawyer, Shane O’Rourke, and is expected to return to court for his arraignment next Wednesday.
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For background, read “Police: Morton man tried to get friends out of work with bomb threat” from Tuesday November 18, 2014, here [1]