Two People Allegedly Connected to March Overdose Death in Centralia Released Days Before Scheduled Trial

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After about two months in jail and five days before they were to face trial on charges related to the overdose death of a 22-year-old Centralia man, two suspects were released from Lewis County Jail on Thursday after a judge dismissed their cases. 

The co-defendants, Emma Bailey, 22, of Moscow, Idaho, and Demetrius R. Robinson, 36, of Tacoma, were each charged in March with one count of conspiracy to commit violation of the uniform controlled substances act in Lewis County Superior Court following a Joint Narcotics Enforcement Team (JNET) investigation. 

On Thursday, May 25, the Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office filed motions to dismiss the cases against Bailey and Robinson without prejudice, meaning the cases can be refiled in the same court of law.

The hearing where Judge Joely Yeager heard Meyer’s dismissal motions was scheduled as a trial confirmation hearing for the two co-defendants ahead of a May 30 trial date. That trial has since been canceled. 

In the written motions, the prosecutor’s office stated the dismissals were “based upon the subjoined affidavit of counsel,” adding, “In the interest of justice, your affiant respectfully requests the court grant the motion for a dismissal without prejudice.” 

The specific reasons for asking the cases to be dismissed were not clarified in the public court documents. 

Bailey and Robinson were arrested on Tuesday, March 21, as part of a Joint Narcotics Enforcement Team (JNET) investigation into the overdose death of a 22-year-old man in Centralia. 



The two codefendants were accused of delivering cocaine to the man, who was visiting from the University of Idaho in Moscow, shortly before he overdosed at a party in Seattle the night of March 20. 

He received care at Harborview Medical Center for the overdose before he was discharged at about 2 a.m. and picked up by the friend, who lives in Centralia. 

Officers with the Centralia Police Department responded at about 9 a.m. on March 21 to a report that the man, who was found by his friend in an apartment in the 3000 block of Borst Avenue, was unconscious and not breathing, according to a news release from the police department. 

The friend told law enforcement the man went to sleep and stopped breathing shortly before the friend called 911, according to court documents.

Before their release on Thursday, Bailey and Robinson had been in custody on $100,000 bail  since March 21.