WSP investigation finds DOC likely could not have prevented Airway Heights prison killing

An investigation by the Washington State Patrol has found there was little Airway Heights prison guards could have done to prevent a man from killing his cellmate in June.

Shane Goldsby, 25, faces a first-degree murder charge for beating 70-year-old Robert Munger to death in a common area of the Airway Heights Corrections Center on June 2.

Both men lived in Cowlitz County before their incarceration. Munger was serving a 43-year sentence for convictions of child rape, child molestation and possession of child pornography. Goldsby, who was captured on surveillance video punching, kicking and stomping on Munger’s head, has said he did it because Munger abused his younger sister.

The state Department of Corrections asked the WSP to conduct an independent investigation on Aug. 6, shortly after KHQ reported on Munger’s killing and questioned why he and Goldsby had been housed together.

According to an agency spokeswoman, the DOC’s internal investigation found Goldsby made no mention of Munger during his intake screening at the prison, and there was no indication of a conflict in any documents reviewed as part of the cell assignment process.

Lt. Scott Davis, of the WSP’s Investigative Services Bureau, found “there is no evidence suggesting that screening staff should have known about the conflict between Goldsby and Munger,” according to a WSP report released Friday. The report notes that the girl Goldsby identified as his sister has a different last name, as does Goldsby’s mother, complicating any effort to screen for family relationships.

Other inmates interviewed by the WSP and Airway Heights police said Goldsby and Munger seemed to know each other from the moment they were housed together, but Goldsby indicated he didn’t immediately recognize Munger as the man who abused his sister.

In an interview with KHQ at the Spokane County Jail, Goldsby said he became enraged when he figured out who Munger was. Goldsby said he tried ask prison staff for a different cellmate by approaching employees in an office but was told to leave. He said he later tried to contact staff by pushing a button in his cell but got no response.

The WSP report says Goldsby was captured on video entering a foyer and looking at a closed office door, then looking into an adjacent medical office where a correctional officer and another employee were working. Both the correctional officer and the other employee told Davis, the WSP lieutenant, that they did not recall seeing Goldsby in the foyer.

“There was no conversation observed on video between Goldsby and any staff in the foyer or offices,” the WSP report states.

The report does not describe any attempt by the WSP to interview Goldsby, who is now being held in the “intensive management unit” at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla. The report notes that in interviews with Airway Heights police, Goldsby “did not mention any desire or attempt to request movement to a different cell.”

The DOC says all agency protocols appear to have been followed in the events leading up to Munger’s killing.

“While the Patrol’s independent investigation found the department properly followed all procedures in place to protect our incarcerated population, this is an unfortunate and complicated incident and we are always reviewing procedures to identify areas for improvement,” DOC Secretary Stephen Sinclair said in a statement.

State Sen. Mike Padden, R-Spokane Valley, recently called for a legislative investigation into Munger’s killing, a proposal supported by Senate Minority Leader Mark Schoesler.