[1]Hillary Harader, far left, faces Judge Nelson Hunt while her husband, in red, speaks with his attorney.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – With almost two dozen family members, friends, co-workers and even their pastor and employer occupying the row of benches behind them, a Centralia couple pleaded guilty to their roles in an incident which included a bullet ending up lodged in the side of the Dairy Bar on Chehalis’s Main Street.
Both entered into plea deals with the Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office.
Matthew W. Harader, 27, admitted he fired a shot toward an occupied pickup truck.
Hillary M. Harader, 23, admitted she subsequently took the gun from her husband and helped destroy it.
The couple went before a judge yesterday afternoon in Lewis County Superior Court in connection with the events that occurred around 3:15 a.m. on Aug. 28.
Chehalis police responded to the area of the gas station at the 600 block of Main Street, to a report of a shooting. The clerk said two men and a woman had been inside the store there, although they arrived in separate vehicles, according to court documents. She then saw what looked like one male outside who appeared to fire toward a pickup truck heading westbound, court documents related.
When police spoke to the two men from the truck, they indicated they’d left the store and one of two men there began to yell and chase them, before firing a weapon.
Nobody was injured. Police recovered two .45 caliber casings at the scene.
Lewis County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Will Halstead told the judge his office has not heard back from the victims. He revealed there actually were four people inside the truck.
He said he watched the surveillance video from the Jackpot the following day, and saw of them inside the store, but didn’t see any contact between them.
“Something happened outside,” Halstead said. “We believe words were spoken from the victim towards a female.”
He said obviously it was a spur of the moment crime that occurred, that Matthew Harader was probably high on meth.
Matthew Harader pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree assault and one count of second-degree assault.
The standard sentencing range for his offenses is between 111 months and 147 months, and Halstead asked for 147.
His lawyer Katherine Gulmert said her client is extremely remorseful
Judge Nelson Hunt agreed to the prison term of twelve years and three months. He said the three years of community custody following release should include a drug treatment program.
When it came time for Hillary Harader to plead guilty to second-degree rendering criminal assistance and tampering with evidence, the judge volunteered he knew her well.
“I’ve known her since she was a child, she was a good friend of my daughter’s,” Hunt said, adding she was also involved in recovery court.
He asked Halstead and her lawyer if either objected to him presiding. They didn’t.
Halstead said when the vehicles left the gas station, Matthew Harader got out of the vehicle he was in and ran back to the car his wife was in, giving her a handgun to dispose of.
Her attorney Robert Brungardt told the judge that his client authorized him to approach prosecutors the very day of her arraignment.
“She knew she had a duty to acknowledge and accept the consequences,” he said.
The two sides recommended to the judge that Hillary Harader serve 60 days, with the option of doing it on electronic home monitoring. And also that $6,000 worth of fines be suspended provided she has no law violations.
Judge Hunt agreed.
He ordered her to report to the Lewis County Jail by Oct. 25, or show evidence she’s on the home monitoring by then.
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For background read “Chehalis shooting: Firearm still missing, one round recovered from Dairy Bar” from Friday September 2, 2016, here [2]