After over two years of delays, the trial for the Amanda Park man accused of killing a 46-year-old man and injuring a 12-year-old in Chehalis in December 2021 is scheduled to commence in Lewis County Superior Court on Monday, Jan. 22
All involved parties confirmed the trial date during a hearing on Thursday, Jan. 18
The defendant, 32-year-old Billy Bartlett, faces one count each of first-degree murder, first-degree assault of a child and first-degree burglary. Each charge carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.
Bartlett was arrested on Dec. 20, 2021 for allegedly approaching 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 asking 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.
Bartlett has been held at the Lewis County Jail without bail since his arrest.
The case was put on an indefinite hold quickly after it was filed in Lewis County Superior Court on Dec. 21, 2021 when a mental health evaluation found Bartlett was not capable of standing trial. After undergoing treatment at Western State Hospital, Bartlett was deemed competent in January of 2022 and the court set trial dates. The trial was delayed several times, however, partially for defense attorney Christopher Baum to arrange an assessment from a private medical expert for an insanity defense.
To use insanity as a defense, Washington state law requires defendants to prove their mind was “affected” by a “mental disease or defect” to the extent that, at the time of the alleged offense, they were “unable to perceive the nature or quality of the act” they have been charged with or were “unable to tell right from wrong with reference to the particular act charged.”
The most-recent delay came days before the last scheduled trial date, Aug. 29, when the defense received a significant amount of evidence that he needed extra time to go through, according to previous Chronicle reporting.
A pre-trial conference was scheduled for 10 a.m. on Friday, Jan. 19.
Jury selection is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. on Monday, Jan. 22.
