Court won’t seek death penalty for Omak teen

OKANOGAN, Wash. – Prosecutors have decided not to seek the death penalty for an Omak teenager accused of killing a woodcutter in November.

Seymour X. Reuben Jr., 18, has been charged with first-degree murder in the Nov. 7 slaying of Leonard Bauer of Tonasket, who had apparently stopped to give Reuben and two friends a ride. Reuben also has been charged with robbery, theft, unlawful possession of a firearm and tampering with evidence in the case.

But Reuben’s age and the lack of gruesome circumstances in the case contributed to the decision not to charge him as an adult, Okanogan County Prosecutor Karl Sloan said.

Sloan said he reviewed 269 other aggravated murder cases throughout the state, and Reuben’s actions do not compare with others in which the death penalty was sought.

Sloan said he conferred with members of Bauer’s family before announcing his decision Monday.

The husband of Bauer’s mother, Bert Lewis, said his wife was not upset by the prosecutor’s decision.

“She didn’t want the death penalty. She wants life with no parole, because if he gets out he’s liable to do it all over again,” he said.

According to court records, Reuben told authorities that Bauer offered Reuben and two friends a ride if they helped him finish cutting a load of firewood. They helped cut the wood, but Reuben shot Bauer in the head when they stopped during the return drive, records showed.

Reuben has pleaded innocent.

The two friends, 18-year-old Devin D. Palmanteer, and 21-year-old Ryan William Adolph Louie, have pleaded innocent to charges of robbery, theft, rendering criminal assistance and unlawful concealment or removal of a body.