GULLS SWEEP THE CLASH
SPORTS • 7A
DailyAstorian.com // WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2016
144TH YEAR, NO. 69
ONE DOLLAR
Local area
chambers
are against
Measure 97
Projected to raise $3 billion
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Randy Roden walks into the courtroom Tuesday at Clatsop County Circuit Court in Astoria.
CONFLICTING CLAIMS
ON TODDLER MURDER
Lawyers make
opening statements
in ‘gruesome’
Seaside case
See MEASURE 97, Page 10A
Gearhart
barn owner
fi res back
By KYLE SPURR
The Daily Astorian
P
rosecutors described Randy Lee
Roden as someone with a violent his-
tory who grew frustrated watching
after his girlfriend’s toddler daughter and
her two sons.
The state is accusing Roden of murder-
ing 2-year-old Evangelina Wing and abus-
ing her brothers in the Seaside apartment
he shared with their mother, Dorothy Ann
Wing.
Roden’s defense lawyers, however, say
the focus on Roden is a rush to judgment.
The defense claims the toddler was killed by
the abusive actions of her mother combined
with a dangerous fl esh-eating virus found on
the girl.
Opening arguments began Tuesday in
Clatsop County Circuit Court in the death
penalty trial of Roden. The crimes are con-
sidered among the worst child-abuse cases
in the county.
Gruesome evidence
Chief Deputy District Attorney Ron
Brown gave a detailed description of the
gruesome evidence . The three children were
tortured, burned, bitten and caged in the
apartment. All three children were the vic-
tims of child abuse. The older brother, now
The Astoria-Warrenton and Seaside chambers of
commerce have joined more than 40 others in oppo-
sition to Measure 97, the corpo-
rate sales tax on the November
ballot .
The measure would impose
a 2.5 percent gross receipts
tax on corporations that have
at least $25 million in Oregon
sales. State economists have
estimated the measure would
create about $3 billion in new
revenue annually.
Skip Hauke
“We did our homework, and
it’s a very, very bad bill for busi-
ness,” said Skip Hauke, execu-
tive director of the Astoria-War-
renton Chamber of Commerce.
Hauke said supporters of
the measure are kidding them-
selves if they don’t think the tax
on corporations will result in an
increase in costs for everyday
citizens, a primary argument of
the opposition. Brian Owen, t he
Brian Owen
Seaside chamber’s e xecutive
d irector, had a similar view.
Smith issues 32-item request
By R.J. MARX
The Daily Astorian
found in almost every corner, including on
holiday decorations and the wall behind a
Christmas tree. Most of the blood spatter
was found in the bathroom and was 3 feet or
lower on the walls.
“There was way more blood in that bath-
room than there ever should have been,”
Brown said.
The state’s theory is that Dorothy Wing
aided and abetted Roden by allowing him to
live with her children and take care of them
while she worked. She was responsible for
Roden’s actions, the state claims, but was
not the one who murdered the toddler.
GEARHART — Shannon
Smith, the owner of Neacoxie
Creek Barn, has fi red back
against the city with a 32-item
request for email records and
fi les from the last three city
administrations.
Smith, who has clashed
with the city over events at
the barn, requested correspon-
dence between current and Shannon Smith
former city councilors, city
engineering and building staff and c ounty building
offi cials, seeking “every communication” regarding
use of the barn.
Gearhart offi cials want to prohibit the barn from
holding weddings and special events until Smith can
produce a certifi cate of occupancy.
See RODEN, Page 10A
See SMITH, Page 10A
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Randy Roden, left, talks with his lawyer Conor Huseby before the start of open-
ing statements on Tuesday at Clatsop County Circuit Court .
7, is one of the most traumatized children
his pediatric doctor has seen. The boy will
not testify at trial due to the trauma, Brown
said.
The younger brother, now 3, had a bro-
ken bone in his pelvic region and extensive
bruising.
An autopsy found Evangelina Wing
apparently died of battered child syndrome
with blunt force trauma to her head.
Doctors and nurses will testify for the
state about the extensive injuries to the three
children.
“All of these injuries were not acciden-
tal,” Brown said.
Inside the apartment, blood spatter was
Long Beach council votes to relax pot buffers
Ordinance could
entice more retail
‘bud’ businesses
By DAVID PLECHL
EO Media Group
LONG BEACH, Wash. —
Call it the greening of the Wash-
ington coast. Freedom Market, a
new retail pot shop just opened in
Ilwaco Oct. 1, and the town already
hosts one licensed grower — Van-
couver Weed Co . Seaview will see
its fi rst retail weed business, Mr.
Doobies, open in November.
Long Beach, by contrast,
remains barren of bud.
The owner of the new Seaview
‘Even though we allowed
them, it was really tough to
fi nd any place to put one.’
Long Beach Mayor Jerry Phillips
store, H.J. Norris, said he would
have preferred to open in Long
Beach, but couldn’t fi nd a suitable
location, partially because he was
hindered by the city’s strict buffer
ordinances.
A little easier
Things may have just gotten a
little easier for Norris and others
like him who dream of locating
a pot businesses in Long Beach,
now that city council has voted to
relax its stringent buffer policies,
a move likely to pave the way for
prospective marijuana shops, pro-
cessors or producers.
“Even though we allowed
them, it was really tough to fi nd
any place to put one,” Long Beach
Mayor Jerry Phillips said .
On Monday, the City Coun-
cil voted to relax the stringent cit-
ing guidelines, by several hundred
feet in some cases, to now fall in
line with the minimum restrictions
required by state law. The ordi-
nance relaxes buffers in all cases,
except near schools and play-
grounds, to the 100-foot minimum
required by the state.
State law also restricts Pacifi c
County to three allotments for
retail marijuana businesses, which
are all currently in use elsewhere.
But no such equivalent restriction
exists for producers and proces-
sors, including medical coopera-
tives, sometimes called “collective
gardens,” so changes to local laws
may entice more non-retail mar-
ijuana businesses, along with the
taxes they provide, to fi nd a home
within the Long Beach business
community. Nevertheless, the pot
See POT, Page 10A
Jerry Phillips
Ariel Smith