By Sharyn L. Decker

Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The conviction will stand for the Onalaska man who fatally shot a suspected burglar outside his house three years ago.

Ronald A. Brady was sentenced to just over five years in prison for the death of 56-year-old Thomas McKenzie of Morton.

The Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office got word yesterday the Washington Supreme Court denied Brady’s petition for review.

Brady argued self defense in his June 2011 trial. He avoided a first-degree murder conviction, but a jury found him guilty of second-degree manslaughter.

He told sheriff’s detectives he was staying overnight at the uninhabited house he owns on the 2100 block of state Route 508 in case burglars from earlier in the day returned. The then-59-year-old described opening the garage door and finding flashlights shined in his face and then firing several times with a .22 caliber rifle.

The rejection by the court means he will stay behind bars.

“It means the defendant petitioned the Supreme Court to review the Court of Appeals affirmation of his conviction,” Lewis County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Sara Beigh said. “And the Supreme Court said no, we’re not going to look at it.”

Through his attorney, Brady had appealed on several grounds, including contending the court erred when it refused to give his proposed jury instruction on the right to resist the commission of a felony. The appeals court said in its April decision the facts of the case did not support such an instruction, as any felony that may have been committed did not pose an immediate threat of death or great bodily harm to Brady.

Longview lawyer John A. Hays said that actually wasn’t his strongest argument.

Hays said his main concern was jurors were not allowed to hear information that showed McKenzie and his wife were there to steal. Lewis County Superior Court Judge Nelson Hunt kept that out saying the defendant didn’t know it at the time, he said.

“I don’t think the evidence was presented fairly at all,” Hays said. “Of course the trial court didn’t see it that way, neither did the appeals court or the Supreme Court.”

The shooting occurred on April, 19, 2010. Lewis County Sheriff Steve Mansfield believed Brady’s use of force was justifiable, and declined to arrest him. The prosecutor’s office reviewed the case and filed charges the following September.

Brady is housed at Cedar Creek Corrections Center, a minimum security facility near Littlerock, according to the state Department of Corrections. The earliest he could be released, with so-called good time, is January 2016.

Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer said he didn’t think yesterday’s rejection by the Supreme Court necessarily clarified questions such as can a person use deadly force to protect property or how much does it matter if the person shot is inside or outside a house.

“I don’t think so, because this wasn’t self defense,” Meyer said. “It may make it more clear what self defense isn’t.”

There are so many variables, he said, he can’t give an easy answer or a checklist for what’s okay.

“Any action you take against another is going to be reviewed at multiple levels,” he said. “There’s no clear cut answer.”

Meyer did offer this however: “If someone acts in self defense, they are protected by the law.”

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For background, read “Breaking news: Onalaska murder trial: Guilty of second-degree manslaughter” from Friday June 24, 2011, here

Read the decision

Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter