Airway Heights inmate likely blinded in assault
Published 1:14 pm Thursday, October 14, 2010
AIRWAY HEIGHTS — An inmate at the Airway Heights Corrections Center near Spokane is likely blind after an assault by a cellmate who killed another cellmate six years ago, police said.
Chad Bolstad’s left eye was gouged out of its socket, and his right eye was damaged to the point of losing sight, police Chief Lee Bennett said.
Bolstad was attacked by cellmate Michael L. West, 34, on Sunday night, the chief told The Spokesman-Review in a story published Thursday.
“It was pretty graphic. He was using his bare hands,” Bennett said.
Bolstad was in satisfactory condition at a hospital. West was moved to the maximum-security Washington State Penitentiary at Walla Walla.
Spokane lawyer Jeffry Finer, who represented the family of Christopher Rentz, who was killed six years ago, questioned why West was at a medium-security facility with cellmates.
“Given his attack on Rentz and how horrific it was, it’s hard to fathom why he would be placed in confinement with any cellmate,” Finer said.
Bolstad’s father declined comment.
Corrections Department officials were investigating why West was classified as a minimum-security inmate.
West on Sunday also attacked cellmate Gary L. Welch, telling Welch to bow to him because he was Lucifer, Bennett said. Welch pressed a panic button to notify prison staff, and West tried to strangle him with a towel, according to police.
West was awaiting trial for raping and stabbing his girlfriend in 2004 when he and another cellmate killed Rentz, 21, a property crimes suspect, when he was housed with maximum-security inmates in Spokane County Jail.
West pleaded guilty to first-degree murder for the October 2004 attack. Brandon M. Martin pleaded guilty to first-degree rendering criminal assistance. Martin is serving a life sentence for killing two men in Mead in October 2003.
Spokane County settled a $5.65 million federal lawsuit filed on behalf of Rentz’s family for $180,000.
Airway Heights spokeswoman Risa Klemme said West, Bolstad and Welch recently arrived at the medium-security prison and were temporarily sharing a cell.
“We have a lot of offenders that have committed violent crimes that have earned their way through the classification process,” she said.
Bolstad is scheduled to be released in 2015 after assault and robbery convictions stemming from a 2007 robbery that involved a stabbing. Welch is serving time for forgery, theft and drug convictions in Douglas and Chelan counties and is to be released in August.
West is not scheduled to be released until 2048.
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Information from: The Spokesman-Review, http://www.spokesman.com
