Suspect Charged in 2018 Killing of Randle Teen Released From Jail Pending Sentencing

A suspect formerly charged with murder in the death of Randle teen Benjamin Eastman III in June 2018 was released from the custody of the Lewis County Jail on Thursday pending sentencing, after a request from his attorney that was granted by a Lewis County Superior Court Judge, according to court documents.

Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer contested the release of Michael D. Salazar, 18, of Randle, who had reached a plea agreement with the state in May that dropped the second-degree murder charge he was facing. Meyer argued that  based on the allegations, Salazar should not be released.

Salazar pleaded guilty to second-degree assault, three counts of first-degree attempted rendering criminal assistance non-relative and tampering with a witness-domestic violence on May 5.

However, Superior Court Judge James Lawler sided with Salazar’s defense attorney Tim Leary and agreed to release him before his sentencing hearing.

According to the Lewis County Jail log, Salazar was released at 7:16 p.m. on Thursday.

Meyer told The Chronicle that the second-degree murder charge was dropped in order to secure a plea agreement with Salazar on the condition that he testifies against Jerald Thompson, brother of Jonathon Adamson, who is charged with tampering with a witness in connection to the killing.

Adamson and Benito Marquez have pleaded guilty to the murder of Eastman, and are alleged to have lured him into the woods by telling him they wanted to go camping, brutally beating him to death, then burying him in a shallow grave, only to dig his body back up after they feared getting caught.

Thompson is scheduled to go to trial on Tuesday, Sept. 15.

Meyer said it did not make a lot of sense to him to release Salazar, who had been in custody since July of 2019, because by the time he is sentenced, he would have served nearly the entire sentence that Meyer is prepared to recommend in credit from time served in the Lewis County Jail.

Meyer is prepared to recommend a sentence of 20 months in prison and 18 months in community custody, which is how Washington refers to parole, according to court documents.

Regarding the dropped second-degree murder charge that Salazar was facing, Meyer said it would have been hard to prove in trial, and a plea agreement that would get him to testify against Thompson would suffice.

Salazar is scheduled to be sentenced in Lewis County Superior Court on Saturday, Sept. 19.