BILLINGS – A man who shot at suspected shoplifters as they drove away from a southern Montana mall last year was fined $500 and received a one-year deferred sentence.
The Billings Gazette reports 30-year-old James Ellis Newman was sentenced Thursday in Billings Municipal Court after he pleaded no contest earlier this month to negligent endangerment and unlawful discharge of a firearm.
The misdemeanor charges stem from the February shooting outside the Rimrock Mall in Billings. Authorities say Newman fired six shots at a vehicle after confronting two suspected shoplifters in the parking lot.
Newman will not be allowed to possess a firearm while serving the sentence.