PORT ANGELES — The Pierce County coroner officially ruled on Tuesday that a newborn boy found dead in trash that came from Port Angeles died by “homicidal violence of undetermined etiology.”
The coroner’s office performed an autopsy on Tuesday, said Eric L. Kiesel, chief medical examiner, on the eve of a hearing today in Port Angeles to file formal charges against the child’s alleged mother.
The infant’s body had been found on Monday after officials searched 60 tons of trash transported from Port Angeles to a dump site near Tacoma.
Prosecutors and detectives said the newborn had been drowned in a toilet bowl, then disposed in a trash can outside a Port Angeles home on Dec. 30.
A 16-year-old girl who had lived in Port Angeles since October was arrested on investigation of first or second degree murder of her newborn son and remained in custody on Tuesday in Clallam County jail on $500,000.
The girl’s father, Ronald E. Last Jr., has been charged with illegal possession of a weapon, possession of methamphetamine and concealing a birth. He remained in custody on Tuesday on $10,000 bail.
Formal charges are expected to be filed today against the girl, who is unidentified because she is a minor.
Prosecuting Attorney Deb Kelly declined to say which of the two charges she would file — first or second degree murder — at the hearing at 1 p.m. in Clallam County Superior Court.
To be tried as a adult
Either of the charges would mean that the girl would be tried as an adult, Kelly said.
Last’s arraignment is set for 9 a.m. Friday in Callam Superior Court.
Court documents allege that the girl gave birth to the baby boy at about 3 a.m. before he was drowned and placed in a trash bin outside her father’shome on 12th Street.
Court documents allege that Last saw the baby in the trash, later found out it was his daughter’s baby and did not report it.
The weapon was found when police searched the home, and Police Chief Terry Gallagher said that Last identified the weapon as his.
Last has been convicted of possession of methamphetamine twice, possession of methamphetamine with the intent to deliver it, burglary, illegal possession of a firearm and possession of stolen property.
In all of the cases, his guilty plea led to the convictions.
He had another conviction in 1988, but the case had been archived and the charges were not available on court computers.
Police heard about the death of the infant boy on Friday when a woman went into the police station and said she had seen him in the trash.
By the time officer arrived on the scene, the trash had been collected and was being prepared for shipment to Oregon.
Two 60-ton trash containers were intercepted in Tacoma, and on Monday, Port Angeles police detectives, Olympic Peninsula Narcotics Enforcement Team detectives and multiple Pierce County area agencies searched the containers.
About halfway through the search of first container, the body of the baby boy was found.
Father in mid-30s
Gallagher said that the girl had concealed the pregnancy from at least some people, and that the father was a man in his mid-30s in Colorado.
The girl had moved to Port Angeles in October from Pueblo, Colo., where she lived with her mother, Dawn Harris.
A woman who answered the phone at Harris’ home and identified herself as the girl’s grandmother, but did not give a name, said, “I didn’t know anything, and she [Harris] didn’t know anything” and declined further comment before hanging up.
The girl had lived in Port Angeles, although when is unclear, and had attended Lincoln High School, Port Angeles Detective Jesse Winfield said.
Port Angeles School District Superintendent Gary Cohn said he couldn’t discuss a student on the advice of the district’s legal counsel.
Pueblo law enforcement offices are looking into whether charges can be filed against the man who is alleged to be the father of the baby.
Pueblo police Sgt. Brett Wilson said he can’t comment about any potential investigation because “here in Colorado, due to our children’s code, we can’t talk about an ongoing investigation until we make an arrest.
“If the crime has taken place here in Pueblo and involves children we will investigate and follow through with it.”
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
