By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – Attorneys continue to wait for a report from Western State Hospital to find if 65-year-old Richard Joseph Frank Roth is competent to stand trial for first-degree murder in the November fatal shooting of his trailer park neighbor.
[1]Jackie Marie Lawyer
Roth was arrested and subsequently charged in the Nov. 4 death of 64-year-old Jackie Marie Lawyer in Winlock.
Prosecutor’s alleged Roth retrieved a handgun from his property and confronted Lawyer near the trailer park mailboxes after an argument between the two about him “snitching” on her for her dumping wood stove ashes in the woods.
A trial date has not been set because, at the request of his attorney Mike Underwood, Roth was sent first to the state mental hospital to be evaluated. Underwood said at the time it was his standard protocol for a case of this seriousness.
Roth is back in the Lewis County Jail, but was not brought to the courtroom today for a scheduled review hearing.
Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecutor Brad Meagher told the judge the report was being typed up as he spoke and asked that they reconvene next Thursday on the matter.