BB gun vandal gets eight-year sentence
by Kootenai Valley Record
May 19, 2010
A 21-year-old Libby man was sentenced Monday to eight years with the Montana Department of Corrections, with half that time suspended, for his role in a vandalism spree in February.
Dustin A. Steiger pleaded guilty to accountability for criminal mischief for his part in the vandalism and to violating probation in a 2003 juvenile case. As part of the plea agreement, Steiger received a concurrent commitment to the Department of Corrections until Sept. 11, 2013, and misdemeanor charges of making false reports to law enforcement from an unrelated December 2009 case were dropped.
Steiger was arrested along with Robert James Morris, 23, on the evening of Sunday, Feb. 21, following a report that a window had been shot out of a truck parked across the street from the Mint Bar.
A Libby police officer reported that he responded to the Mint around 6:20 p.m. after a caller told the dispatcher at the sheriff’s office that someone had shot out her truck window. About 15 minutes later, the officer responded to another report of a suspicious vehicle in the area of Timberline Auto Center. According to the report, the car was running stop signs and speeding, and its occupants were yelling profanities out the window.
The officer located a car matching the description at the intersection of U.S. Highway 2 and Louisiana Avenue, and he pulled the car over at the corner of Louisiana and Fifth Street. The driver was identified as Steiger and the passenger as Morris.
Two sheriff’s deputies arrived to assist and searched the car with permission. According to affidavits filed in support of the charges, two semiautomatic pistol-style BB guns were found on the passenger side of the car, and Steiger told the officers that Morris had been shooting out the window of the car as they drove up and down Mineral Avenue.
The officers later discovered that a number of other windows had been shot out of Mineral Avenue businesses including the Pastime Bar, Managhan’s Furniture, Cabinet Mountain Chevrolet and Cardinal True Value Hardware.
Morris pleaded not guilty to charges of felony criminal mischief and remains tentatively scheduled for trial in the fall.
_________________________________
Editor’s Note: See the May 18, 2010 edition of the Kootenai Valley Record for the printed version of this story. The Kootenai Valley Record publishes once a week, on Tuesdays, in Libby, Montana. They are a locally owned community newspaper, located at 403 Mineral Avenue in Libby. For in-county and out-of-county subscription information, call 406-293-2424, or e-mail kvrecord@gmail.com.
|
