Wheeler pleads innocent to charges

KALISPELL — A Ronan man charged with burglaries in three Western Montana counties has pleaded innocent to setting a December fire at the Echo Lake Store near Bigfork.

Cote Remi Wheeler, 20, entered not guilty pleas last week to arson and three counts of burglary, all felonies, during his arraignment in Flathead County District Court.

According to court records, Wheeler told investigators he broke in through the store’s attic and stole a box of candy bars and some cigarettes before emptying a bottle of vehicle gas-line antifreeze on a dresser and lighting it on fire.

When the Bigfork Fire Department responded to the store — located on Swan River Road near the intersection with Montana 83 — early on the morning of Dec. 3, the building was fully in flames.   

An insurance company estimated the fire did more than $450,000 in damage to the 3,100-square-foot convenience store, which at the time was up for sale and being used as a game-processing facility.

Wheeler also is charged in Flathead County with two additional counts of burglary for break-ins to a business in downtown Bigfork and at a storage facility on Montana 35. Cash and stereo equipment were reported stolen in those heists.

Wheeler also been connected with a long string of burglaries in Lake County. He is charged there with breaking into two Arlee businesses and two area homes.

Wheeler has been in the custody of various law enforcement agencies since he and an accomplice were arrested in January after allegedly breaking into the home of a Missoula police officer.

Lake County investigators notified Missoula County authorities that the men’s pickup truck was exhibiting a suspicious pattern of behavior — possibly checking out or breaking into homes — in a rural Missoula County neighborhood.

Detectives with the Lake County Sheriff’s Office and Polson Police Department had begun monitoring the vehicle with GPS technology after receiving a District Court search warrant authorizing its use.

Missoula County deputies found Wheeler in the truck with two loaded handguns, jewelry and two knives. Similar items had been taken from the Missoula police officer’s home after the door had been kicked in, court records show.

Wheeler is being held in the Flathead County Detention Center in lieu of $20,000 bail pending his September trial. Conviction in Flathead County alone carries a potential 80 years in prison and a $200,000 fine.

Reporter Nicholas Ledden can be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at nledden@dailyinterlake.com