Teen charged in assault

POLSON — A 17-year-old boy charged as an adult pleaded guilty to felony aggravated assault Monday afternoon, after throwing a sharp-edged piece of steel rebar into his mother’s head on Sunday night.

Jonathan Paul Korman appeared for an arraignment hearing before Judge C.B. McNeil in Lake County District Court at 2 p.m. on Monday, entering the guilty plea to count I before pleading not guilty to count II of assault on a peace officer. The defendant faces maximum punishments of 20 years prison and $50,000 in fines on count I and 10 years prison and $50,000 in fines for count II.

The defendant’s mother, Julie Ann Korman, was transported to St. Joseph Medical Center before she was Life Flighted to the Intensive Care Unit at St. Patrick’s Hospital in Missoula Sunday night. The mother was reported to be in stable condition Monday afternoon.

According to a police affidavit, Polson Police officer William Cleveland responded to a report of a possible aggravated assault at the Cherry Hill apartments to find the mother laying on the front steps with two adult males holding towels to her head, covering a hole that was bleeding. When the men identified Korman inside the residence, Cleveland entered and observed the young male in a defensive position.

The officer ordered Korman to the ground with his taser, placed the male in handcuffs and escorted him to his patrol car with Korman resisting arrest and kicked at Cleveland causing injuries to the officer. Once in the patrol vehicle, the report states that Korman said he had “stuck a spike in her head.” The defendant was first transported to the Lake County Detention Center’s juvenile holding cell, where he admitted to Chief Juvenile Probation Officer Barbara Monaco that he had consumed marijuana and alcohol earlier in the day.

Polson Police Detective Alan Booth and Lake County Sheriff’s Detective Dan Yonkin interviewed the defendant, who admitted getting into an argument with his mom, and threw the metal rod with a sharpened end at her from about three feet away.

In court Monday, Korman recalled that he was out with his mother and his girlfriend Sunday night and that an argument had transpired at the residence. Korman said he grabbed a rebar and went to walk outside with it and as his mother came up behind him he turned around and threw it at her, striking her in the head.

Korman added that he had been under the influence that day and did not remember purposefully throwing the rod at his mother, but admitted that it wasn’t a slip of the hands and that he had indeed thrown the rebar.

Defense Attorney Steven Eschenbacher stated that as Korman is still a juvenile his client has the opportunity to appeal to have the case transferred back to youth court in the next 30 days. For the meantime, Monaco and county attorney Mark Russell requested Korman be placed in a Reintegrating Youthful Offenders correctional facility in Galen for an evaluation, as the juvenile would have to be segregated from the county jail’s general population anyway until he turns 18 on July 1.

The defendant will be transported back to Lake County Detention Center after the completion of his RYO program. A transfer hearing as well as an omnibus hearing for the assault on a peace officer charge will be held at 9 a.m. on July 8.