Justin G. Bonifield, 47, makes an appearance in Lewis County Superior Court on Wednesday afternoon at the Lewis County Law and Justice Center in Chehalis.
Justin G. Bonifield, 47, makes an appearance in Lewis County Superior Court on Wednesday afternoon at the Lewis County Law and Justice Center in Chehalis.
Workers from the Washington Department of Ecology's Emergency Response Team test chemicals found in an alleged methamphetamine lab on Joppish Road in Galvin on Tuesday afternoon.
A Centralia man was charged Wednesday in Lewis County Superior Court on suspicion of assaulting a woman who, when police arrived, gave up the location of his meth lab.
Justin G. Bonifield, 47, was charged Wednesday afternoon with manufacturing methamphetamine, second-degree assault, harassment — threat to kill, domestic violence, second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm, second-degree possession of stolen property and possession of methamphetamine.
Lewis County Deputy Prosecutor Will Halstead said this is the first charge of manufacturing methamphetamine that he has seen in his seven years in the county.
Chief Deputy Dusty Breen told The Chronicle the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office hasn’t seen an active meth lab, rather than an abandoned lab or chemical dump site, for many years.
“For us, it’s very rare,” he said.
Given the charges, Halstead asked for $200,000 bail, which Superior Court Judge Joely O’Rourke granted.
“I think what’s more concerning are the assaults here,” she said. “The allegations here and the time he would be looking at (if convicted) would present a flight risk.”
She also ordered Bonifield not to contact the alleged victim.
At 7:48 p.m. on Monday, deputies from the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office responded to a report of an assault in the 100 block of Joppish Road in Galvin. The alleged victim, a 40-year-old woman, reported that Bonifield hit her in the head with an empty beer bottle during an argument.
The woman told deputies that she pushed the garage door opener in an attempt to get away and slid under the opening garage door, then ran toward a neighbor’s house.
She reported hearing a gunshot behind her, according to court documents. She believed Bonifield fired the gun.
Bonifield reportedly fled the scene in a 2004 Ford Mustang.
The victim also reported to police that she had seen Bonifield make methamphetamine in one of the outbuildings on the property.
Deputies applied for a search warrant and found a “fully functional methamphetamine lab as well as a crystal substance that tested positive for methamphetamine,” according to court documents. The “lab” contained beakers, tubes, chemicals, flasks, a condenser, powder that tested positive for ephedrine and red phosphorous, a chemical used to make methamphetamine.
On Tuesday, detectives and responders from the state Department of Ecology were still at the scene.
Bonifield was arrested at 12:15 p.m. Tuesday in Thurston County with the help of the Joint Narcotics Enforcement Team, a partnership between the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office and the Centralia and Chehalis police departments, and the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office, which found the suspect’s car in the 7000 block Fair Oaks Road Southeast in Olympia, Breen said.
He was reportedly surrounded by law enforcement at a residence and surrendered after officers called him on the phone, he said.
Bonifield’s prior felony convictions — for manufacturing or delivering a controlled substance and attempting to elude a law enforcement officer — date back to 1995.
