A 33-year-old man was charged Friday with possession of meth after Washington State Patrol troopers investigated a report  of a man “dancing” in the median of Highway 16 near the Tremont Street exit.

“The report matched similar incidents of a male in the median, sometimes hiding in the bushes, reported by passing motorists since the summer of 2014,” a trooper wrote in court documents. “I have responded to many of these calls was never able to observe the individual.”

Two troopers responding to the March 2 call, which was dispatched at about 6:50 a.m., didn’t see a male in the median. One noticed a large hole in a fence leading to a neighborhood off Tremont, however, and when he stepped through the hole he saw a man matching the description of the suspect.

The troopers got back in their vehicles and drove into the neighborhood. When they caught up with the man, he was “moving erratically,” the trooper wrote, “flailing his arms about in an animated fashion.”

When they approached him, the man appeared to discard a used meth pipe from his pocket, though he denied it was his, according to the document. During a search of the man, the trooper also found suspected meth.

“I asked (the man) about the meth, noting that it was the old home-cooked style that was prevalent several years ago,” the trooper wrote.

“(The man) stated that I was correct, that it was locally cooked.”

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A Kitsap County Superior Court jury started deliberations Wednesday in the case of a Kingston man accused of shaking his infant daughter to death in July.

It is the second time Hector Francisco Saavedra Ruiz, 22, has stood trial for the death of 5-month-old Natalie. The first trial, in February, ended in a hung jury.

Saavedra Ruiz is charged with second-degree murder, but before trial prosecutors added a charge of first-degree manslaughter.*

Prosecutors have alleged that Saavedra Ruiz and the child’s mother, Kayla DesRochers, smoked meth then Saavedra Ruiz took the child to visit his coworkers at the Puerto Vallarta Mexican restaurant on Highway 104 July 16.

When Saavedra Ruiz returned, the child was not breathing. Natalie died in the hospital two days later. An autopsy found she had injuries consistent with being shaken.

DesRochers told investigators differing accounts of what happened that night. Also, a juror on the first trial said testimony raised questions about a broken rib on the child that was healing in light of testimony from DesRochers stating Saavedra Ruiz had little or no unsupervised contact with Natalie prior to that night.

Natalie was one of two infant girls alleged to have died in 2014 after being shaken by their fathers. Christopher Mayo, 20, is scheduled to be sentenced May 1 after pleading guilty to second-degree murder for the death of 10-week-old AnnaBelle in October. As part of the plea deal, prosecutors will ask that Mayo be sentenced to 14 years in prison.

*Prosecutors attempted to file this charge, but it was not filed.

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The whump whump of a helicopter heard thundering above Central Kitsap during the early hours of Easter morning was likely a King County Sheriff’s Office helicopter on its way to help rescue an injured hiker in Jefferson County.

Reports of the low-flying helicopter came in from Seabeck to Silverdale and Bremerton, where windows were rattled, sleep was disturbed, questions were raised and the possibility of a United Nations invasion was pondered (by me).

The King County helicopter was sent to The Brothers mountains – across Hood Canal from Seabeck – to hoist the hiker and take him to Harborview Medical Center, said Deputy BJ Myers, spokesman for the office. The office’s Facebook page was updated at 12:25 a.m. to say the helicopter, known as Guardian 2, was preparing to launch.

Myers said the helicopter is known as being noisy. One person in Silverdale said it sounded like it was going to land on their roof. A man in Seabeck commented it did two passes over his house, which he found “rude.”

“It’s a super loud helicopter,” Myers said. “I know exactly what they are talking about.”

There was a medical airlift from Bainbridge Island at about 4:30 a.m. following a car crash. Tom Struck of Airlift Northwest said the helicopter took off from Boeing Field, went directly to Bainbridge and then flew to Harborview Medical Center.

“There’s no reason for us to do anything but fly a straight line back and forth,” he said, noting that the medical airlift helicopters are relatively quiet and generally do not generate complaints except for during warm weather when people sleep with their windows open.

Struck offered an alternative theory, however.

“One other thing it could have been was the Easter bunny.”

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