A sentencing hearing for Billy Bartlett, the Amanda Park man convicted last month for killing 46-year-old William Foster III and injuring a 12-year-old in Chehalis in December 2021, is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. on Feb. 23.
Bartlett, 32, of Amanda Park, pleaded guilty Jan. 23 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.
In a written plea submitted to Lewis County Superior Court, Bartlett admitted to breaking into an apartment in the 300 block of Southwest James Street in Chehalis on Dec. 20, 2021, and taking a knife.
“On that same day, I used the knife that I previously took to intentionally stab William Foster, causing his death. While in the process of stabbing Mr. Foster, his son … attempted to stop me and got cut in the process,” Bartlett stated in the guilty plea.
Bartlett was arrested on Dec. 20, 2021, after he approached Foster, 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.
Lewis County 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 and will remain in custody on a no-bail hold until his sentencing hearing.
The standard sentencing range is 297 to 397 months in prison for the murder charge, 33 to 43 months for the assault of a child charge, and 87 to 116 months for the burglary charge.
Each charge includes a deadly weapon enhancement, which adds 54 months to the sentence.
In the plea deal submitted to Lewis County Superior Court, the Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office stated it would recommend a total sentence of 451 months, or just over 37.5 years, in prison.
State law prohibits judges from sentencing defendants above their standard sentencing ranges except in extreme circumstances.
