Suspect in 3 killings had knack for appeals process

Triple-homicide suspect John Allen Booth Jr., a man on the run from law enforcement after three gun slayings early Saturday morning in Salkum, Lewis County, has a long criminal history dating back nearly two decades to his early teen years.

Court documents suggest Booth, 31, had a knack for using the appeals process, a skill he would later refine to reduce his sentences in major prison stints, effectively shaving off years of incarceration at lockup across the state.

As two witnesses in Saturday's shootings continue to be questioned by investigators, the Lewis County Sheriff's Office issued a warrant Monday for the muscular Onalaska man with a shaved head, with his bail set at $10 million.

Booth's location has been tracked across the Northwest, including Seattle and Montana, although the Lewis County Sheriff's Office won't say whether they know where he went after the 2 a.m. shootings at a home on the otherwise quiet gravel road called Wings Way.

"He could be anywhere in the state," said Cmdr. Steve Aust. "He could be out of the state."

Now considered an armed and dangerous fugitive, Booth began his long criminal career as a 13-year-old, earning convictions for break-ins, petty thefts, car prowls and trespassing.

As a young adult, Booth was convicted on stolen firearms charges, and by his early 20s, he had been involved in serious assaults that involved armed home invasions and witness intimidation.

As an adult, Booth pleaded guilty to almost every charge he faced.

He mostly took plea deals in exchange for reduced charges.

Court documents suggest prosecutors had a tough time getting witnesses to testify against Booth, who always appealed his cases and almost always won at least part of the appeal.

Government pays tab

In at least one case, he got the justice system to pick up the tab for thousands of dollars in legal expenses.

In 1999, Booth was sentenced to nearly 6 ½ years in prison after he broke into a home, told the homeowner he and his accomplice were "God" and were there to steal drugs.

When the homeowner said he didn't have any drugs, Booth hit him with a 20-ounce claw hammer across the side of his face.

Booth pleaded guilty, but eventually proved through appeals that prosecutors erred in sentencing, because they factored juvenile crimes into his "offender score," which partly determines the severity of the sentence.

Booth was returned to the Lewis County Jail from the Monroe Correctional Complex for his appeal and eventually his sentence was reduced to less than four years.

Homeowner threatened

In June 2003, he was out, and in the same year, he was briefly bach behind bars, but not before he could threaten another homeowner in Salkum, this time with a gun.

Court documents say he was there to avenge an altercation the homeowner had had with Booth's late father, a convicted drug dealer who went by the same name. The elder Booth died last month.

Booth pleaded not guilty to second-degree assault and firearm charges in that case, which was set to go to trial, but the primary witness never showed up to testify. A subpoena in the case file states that a phone number for the witness was disconnected and that a deputy "has indicated that (the witness) will not be found."

Booth later pleaded guilty in that case to lesser charges of third-degree assault and witness tampering after he threatened the homeowner by phone. He was sentenced to less than four months in prison in January 2004, which he never actually served because he technically overserved his reduced 1999 to 2003 sentence.

Crowbar in the head

Three months later in April 2004, Booth was charged with two counts of first-degree assault after he bludgeoned a man in the head with a crowbar at a residence in the 200 block of Tower Avenue in Centralia.

After initially pleading not guilty to the first-degree assault charges, Booth eventually pleaded guilty in a deal with prosecutors for two counts of second-degree assault.

He was sentenced to eight years in prison, plus 18 months to three years in community custody. But Booth appealed again, correctly pointing out that prosecutors laid out a total sentence greater than the 10-year statutory maximum for the assault crimes.

His sentence was reduced from eight years to seven years, still with a possible three years of community custody.

In all, he served 5 ½ years at the Stafford Creek Corrections Center in Aberdeen and was released in December 2009.

Chad Lewis, a Department of Corrections spokesman, said serving less than a full sentence is standard for violent criminals who have good behavior in prison.

"In most cases, there is an earned release date and maximum release date," Lewis said. "You can earn typically about a third of your time off."

Eight months later, Booth is wanted in three point-blank gun murders. He is on the run, and considered armed and dangerous.