Suspect Held on $5M Bail in Fatal Stabbing; Awaiting Mental Health Evaluation

Posted

A Centralia man accused of killing one person and injuring another with a knife Tuesday evening is being held on $5 million bail pending future court hearings and a mental health evaluation. 

Joshua L. Fleck, 29, was charged Wednesday in Lewis County Superior Court with one count each of first-degree murder and attempted murder, both listed as domestic violence offenses. 

Lewis County Coroner Warren McLeod identified the deceased victim Friday as Donovan C. Fleck, 48, of Centralia. 

An autopsy on the deceased victim was scheduled for Thursday. Donovan Fleck’s cause of death was determined to be stab wounds to the head and neck causing internal and external bleeding, according to the Coroner’s Office. The manner of death was determined to be homicide. 

As of Wednesday afternoon, the surviving victim was in “good condition,” according to the Centralia Police Department. 

According to court documents, Centralia police officers responded at 5:41 p.m. Tuesday to an address in the 1100 block of South Pearl Street for a report of an assault. 

“Dispatch advised there were individuals that had been stabbed,” court documents state. 

When officers arrived, they found several people pointing toward a person identified as Joshua Fleck. Fleck was talking on a cellphone and appeared to have an injury to his hand that was bleeding, according to court documents. 

One alleged victim was holding a bloody towel to her neck. She reportedly directed officers to the second victim inside the apartment. 

Officers found two men attempting to perform CPR on the second victim, a man, who “had an apparent neck injury and was not breathing,” according to court documents. Officers attempted CPR but the man was pronounced dead. 

The female victim told officers Fleck was angry because he thought she and the male victim took his marijuana, according to court documents. Fleck allegedly took a knife and stabbed the male victim in the neck. 

When the female victim attempted to intervene, she was stabbed in the neck as well. She reportedly fled out a window to a neighbor’s residence, according to court documents. 

Fleck reportedly lived in the apartment with the two victims. 

Fleck was arrested and allegedly admitted to killing the man and wounding the woman, and told police he thought about killing the man on “numerous occasions prior to this incident,” according to court documents. 

Personnel from the Washington State Patrol crime lab responded to the scene Wednesday morning to help process evidence.

Fleck was scheduled to make his first appearance in Lewis County Superior Court, but did not appear in person on the request of his court appointed counsel, Don Blair, Deputy Prosecutor Will Halstead said in Lewis County Superior Court Wednesday. 

A review hearing is scheduled for Dec. 5.