A Kelso man charged for breaking into a Cowlitz Indian Tribe housing complex in Toledo on May 12 after having previously threatened to burn down the building and kill everyone inside has pleaded guilty to one count each of second-degree burglary and harassment, threat to kill.
The defendant, John Threlfall, had been accused of leaving a threatening voicemail for his sister on April 8 in which he said “there is going to be murder on all you motherf***ers” and later calling his mother, who lived at the housing complex, and saying “he was going to kill everybody and burn down the apartments,” according to court documents.
Threlfall was arrested after police responded to a burglary in progress at the housing complex, located in the 100 block of Spencer Road.
“I knowingly and unlawfully threatened to kill (my sister). The threat was made in such a context that a reasonable person would foresee the statement would be interpreted as a serious expression of intent to kill, and my words placed (my sister) in reasonable fear that the threat would be carried out,” Threlfall said in a written guilty plea, submitted in Lewis County Superior Court on June 30.
He did not admit to making threats against his mother or to the residents of the housing complex, but did state he “unlawfully entered a building at 125 Spencer Road in Toledo, and while inside I intended to commit the crime of theft.”
Threlfall has been sentenced to serve three months in jail with credit for 49 days already served. In addition to delivering Threlfell’s sentence, Lewis County Superior Court Judge Joely A. O’Rourke approved domestic violence no contact orders for the victims.
He was in custody at the Lewis County Jail as of Friday morning.
