Bail is set at $250,000 for a Centralia man accused of holding a gun to his girlfriend’s head and repeatedly threatening to commit a muder-suicide Sunday night.
“This is one of the worst allegations I have seen in a while,” Lewis County Superior Court Judge Joely Yeager said of the case during a preliminary hearing for the defendant, Mark Allan Leach, 20, on Thursday, May 8.
“The state is alarmed at the allegations and the high lethality factors that are shown in this,” Deputy Prosecutor Brandi Archer said during the hearing.
Leach faces one count each of second-degree assault, domestic violence; fourth-degree assault, domestic violence; felony harassment, domestic violence; and alteration of identifying marks of a firearm.
He was arrested and booked into the Lewis County Jail at approximately 2:42 p.m. on Wednesday, May 7, according to jail records, after the victim reported the incident to the Centralia Police Department earlier that day.
The victim reported that she was at her apartment with Leach in the 1500 block of Lewis Street in Centralia the night of Sunday, May 4, when Leach allegedly became upset at her for accepting a friend request on Facebook.
“She said that Leach took her cellphone and told her if he can’t have her, no one can,” the Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office stated in an affidavit of probable cause filed in Lewis County Superior Court on Thursday.
Leach allegedly “grabbed his handgun and waved it around in her face” then “grabbed her by the hair and placed her head next to his and pointed the pistol barrel to his head, also in-line with her head.”
Leach allegedly told the victim, “don’t move so it can get us both at the same time,” which prosecutors said implied “he was going to shoot himself and her in the head at the same time,” according to court documents.
The victim reported that Leach repeated that action twice throughout the night, up until 5 a.m. on Monday, May 5.
She reported that “she was scared and feared for her life” and was “trying to escape the situation,” but Leach allegedly followed her around the residence and did not let her leave.
While holding the firearm, Leach allegedly “told her if she told anyone, he would kill her and anyone she told,” according to court documents.
Leach reportedly allowed the victim to leave the apartment to go to her job on Monday, at which point she went to her mom’s house and reported the situation, according to court documents.
After she left the apartment on Monday, Leach allegedly texted the victim, “I wasn’t trying to scare you, I was fr (for real) about what I said tho. And I was 100% planning to follow through with it,” according to court documents.
The victim reportedly had access to a live camera feed of the apartment and confirmed to officers on Wednesday that Leach was currently in the apartment and holding the firearm, and that she had heard him say on the live camera feed “that he was going to kill everyone,” according to court documents.
Officers with the Centralia Police Department evacuated the apartment building on Wednesday and attempted to make contact with Leach, who “eventually surrendered and came outside,” according to court documents.
When questioned, Leach allegedly denied “having a firearm or having anything to do with a firearm,” but allegedly admitted to getting into an argument with the victim over her accepting a Facebook friend request.
He allegedly admitted to “grabbing her phone and going through it,” according to court documents.
Officers executed a search warrant on the residence and found a Taurus 9 mm firearm, 43 rounds of 9 mm ammunition and a holster.
The serial number of the firearm had been scratched off, according to court documents.
Defense attorney Rachael Tiller asked for Leach’s bail to be set no higher than $100,000, despite the amount being likely outside of Leach’s ability to post, due to the severity of the allegations and the prosecution requesting a higher bail of $250,000.
The lethality factors of the allegations, including the involvement of a firearm, “give the state great concern for community safety and the safety of the victim,” Archer said.
Yeager agreed, adding that the allegation that Leach altered the firearm also gave the court concern that Leach would interfere with the administration of justice if released from jail.
Arraignment is scheduled for Thursday, May 15.
A no-contact order in favor of the victim is in place.
