News briefs, April 22
Huntsman pleads guilty
POLSON - A Polson man accused of shaking his three-month-old baby has pleaded guilty to the charge of aggravated assault, a felony.
Christopher Huntsman, 28, changed his plea to guilty in Judge C.B. McNeil's District Courtroom last Wednesday after coming to an agreement with county prosecutors that would drop two other felony charges, criminal endangerment and assault on a minor, in exchange for his guilty plea to the aggravated assault charge.
The state recommended for Hunstman to be sentenced to 30 years in prison with 25 suspended. He would also be considered a persistent felony offender in the plea deal.
Huntsman is on probation for a theft conviction stemming from an incident in 2002. His guilty plea will violate his terms of probation, and the state will recommend Hunstman serve an additional five years in prison. He can argue for his revoked sentence to be served concurrently during his May 19 sentence hearing.
Huntsman was arrested and held on $100,000 bond in early February after his wife took their 3-month-old child to St. Joseph's Medical Center. The infant's injuries were consistent with being shaken, and local law enforcement was called to the hospital. During an interview with detectives at the time, Hunstman admitted to shaking the baby for approximately 30 seconds to make her stop crying. The child was transported via medical helicopter to Sacred Heart Children's Hospital in Spokane, Wash., because of severe head trauma and bleeding from the brain.
She was released a few days later and "is doing well," Polson Police Department Asst. Chief John Stevens said in February.
Huntsman will be sentenced on May 19.
-Reporter Sasha Goldstein
Ross enters plea
POLSON - A Dixon man held at the Lake County Jail in connection with a 2005 murder has pleaded not guilty to felony charges of deliberate homicide and tampering with physical evidence.
Nathan Aaron Ross, 21, entered his plea in Judge C.B. McNeil's District Courtroom last Wednesday and remains in custody. Ross will have a transfer hearing on April 28 to determine if his case will be moved to a youth court. Ross was 16 at the time of the alleged murder and if tried as a youth, will avoid the possibility of the death penalty if convicted of the deliberate homicide charge.
An article in the Lake County Leader immediately after the incident reported that members of the St. Ignatius fire department responded to 1380 Mission Dam Homesites on July 7, 2005 at 4:20 a.m. where they discovered a trailer on fire and the body of Harold Mitchell, Jr., 73, inside.
Mitchell's body was sent to the state crime lab in Missoula, accompanied by then Lake County Undersheriff and coroner Mike Sargeant and lead investigator Jay Doyle, and an autopsy revealed no soot in Mitchell's throat or lungs, indicating he had stopped breathing before the fire started, according to the sheriff's office. Investigators originally thought the fire was started accidentally, but the autopsy showed otherwise. The autopsy determined Mitchell's cause of death, which the criminal affidavit revealed as a stab wound to the neck that severed the carotid artery.
Details have emerged from one of the four men allegedly involved in the crime indicating Ross was present at the scene. All four men are incarcerated, and the other three may be charged in connection with the 2005 incident as well.
Ross' bail was set at $50,000 after the state requested either no bail or $1 million bond. An omnibus hearing is set for May 12.
-Reporter Sasha Goldstein
Input requested
The Ronan Parks Board desires to create a master plan for the city's parks. In order to determine the desires, needs and concerns of the citizens of our community, a survey has been generated.
Surveys will be available April 24 at the Community Earth Day event; at the Health Fair May 13 at the Joe McDonald building at SKC and, in an effort to get feedback valley wide, in your phone bill. That survey can be returned to the Ronan Telephone Co when you pay your bill. Please, take this opportunity to express your wish list for, as well as concerns about, the Ronan City Parks system. The deadline for tallying the surveys is May 31st. If you have any questions please contact the Ronan Parks Dept. at 676-0211 or visit with one of your local Park Board members.
-Courtesy of Jennifer Rolfsness
Kicking Horse received grant
Kicking Horse Job Corps Center received ARRA funds to purchase three electric vehicles, additional insulation, solar hot water panel for cafeteria, on demand hot water heaters for dorms, greenhouse, plant a garden, start composting, plant native species, and build a trailer for cardboard recycling. The center is purchasing coffee travel mugs for all students and staff in their efforts to eliminate Styrofoam on center.
-Courtesy of Shelly Fyant