Fleming sentenced to two five-year prison terms

Law enforcement officials took Isaac James Fleming into custody May 4 after he was sentenced for his involvement in a Pablo shooting Dec. 13, 2015.

Fleming, 17 of Ronan, sat in Lake County Jail until May 9, when he was transferred to another facility in the Montana Department of Corrections system. District Court Judge James A. Manley issued two, five-year sentences after accepting the plea deal struck by prosecuting attorney’s and Fleming’s legal staff. Fleming pleaded guilty to two charges of felony assault charges in March of 2016.

Though Fleming is a juvenile, he was prosecuted through Lake County District Court as an adult.

During his May 4 court appearance Fleming was sentenced to five years in the Department of Corrections for one charge and an additional five additional years with all that time suspended for a second felony assault–related count. The second, suspended sentence will run at the same time as the first five-year sentence. 

Fleming is the teenager involved in a two-day romantic squabble that ended after Fleming assaulted another man, and after his friend Ashley Rae Hewankorn allegedly shot Fleming’s girlfriend’s mother in the chest last winter. Hewankorn was later charged with a fistful of felonies, pleaded guilty through a plea deal and will be sentenced in June. Charleen Hewankorn was also arrested in conjunction with the case. After the shooting, Fleming and the two Hewankorn’s fled the scene and led law enforcement officers on a days-long hunt to find them.

Charleen Hewankorn was taken into custody the day of the shooting. Ashley Rae Hewankorn was taken into custody after a Browning resident recognized her from a media blitz several days later.Fleming was arrested on Christmas morning in Ronan.