A 61-year-old Browning man has been sentenced to 20 years in prison more than a year after he ran over his wife with a truck before driving in front of a train in an effort to commit suicide.
Thomas Edward Mancha was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Great Falls on Jan. 18 to 20 years in federal prison, with five years of supervised release to follow. Mancha pleaded guilty to second-degree murder last October.
According to court records, another Glacier County man agreed to meet Mancha on Jan. 1, 2017, at a location called Camp Disappointment, east of Browning, where there is a monument commemorating the Lewis and Clark Expedition. When the man arrived, he found Mancha holding his wife, Charlene, by the hair. According to the witness, Charlene cried for help before Mancha got into his pickup truck and ran her over twice.
The witness got in his car, drove away and called police. Mancha followed him but eventually turned off U.S. Highway 2 at a location near Blackfoot. After turning, Mancha drove his vehicle into the path of an oncoming train in an apparent suicide attempt, records state. Mancha survived his injuries and was treated at a Great Falls hospital where he was discharged and arrested three weeks later.