Billy Bartlett, the Amanda Park man accused of killing a 46-year-old man and injuring a 12-year-old in Chehalis in December 2021, pleaded guilty to murder, assault and burglary charges in Lewis County Superior Court on Tuesday.
Bartlett’s jury trial on first-degree murder, first-degree assault of a child and first-degree burglary began in Lewis County Superior Court on Monday, Jan. 22 after over two years of delays. Before trial could get truly underway, however, Bartlett entered a change of plea.
He pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count each of second-degree murder, third-degree assault of a child with a deadly weapon, and first-degree burglary with a deadly weapon.
The murder and burglary charges each carry a maximum penalty of life in prison. Third-degree assault of a child is a class C felony punishable by up to five years in prison.
A sentencing hearing is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 1.
Bartlett has been held at the Lewis County Jail without bail since his arrest and will remain in custody on a no-bail hold until his sentencing hearing.
Bartlett was arrested on Dec. 20, 2021 after he approached the adult victim, William A. Foster III, of Tacoma, while he was in a van at a gas pump with his two children, a 12-year-old and a 4-year-old, and asked Foster for a cigarette before stabbing Foster and injuring the 12-year-old.
Bartlett reportedly walked away from the van and Foster started driving the van away from the gas pump. The car ultimately came to rest outside the nearby Ocean Sky Restaurant, where officers found them after they were called to the scene at 7:47 p.m. on Dec. 20, 2021.
Both Foster and the 12-year-old were transported to Providence Centralia Hospital, where Foster died from his injuries.
Coroner Warren McLeod has since determined Foster’s cause of death to be internal bleeding due to multiple stab wounds and the manner of death as homicide.
Chehalis police officers, with help from officers with the Centralia Police Department, the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office and the Washington State Patrol, were conducting a search of the area when, at approximately 8:38 p.m. on Dec. 20, 2021, they received a call about a suspect matching Bartlett’s description trying to break into an apartment complex in the 100 block of Northeast Boistfort Street, where officers were able to arrest him.
