A 19-year-old Whitefish man pleaded no contest to a charge of felony tampering with evidence more than a year after he was accused of tossing a gun involved in an accidental shooting.
Wyatt Hammer Fields appeared at a change of plea hearing in Flathead County District Court on Dec. 12 and will be sentenced in February.
According to court documents, Fields was one of at least four people at a friend’s house when a male accidentally shot himself with a gun. Fields and the others ran away from the trailer after the shooting because they did not want to get in trouble with police, but before leaving, the injured man asked Fields to toss the gun behind the trailer home. When law enforcement arrived, the injured man told them that he had shot himself. During the course of the investigation, sheriff’s deputies talked to multiple witnesses, including Fields. Fields initially denied being at the home but later admitted he was after being confronted with inconsistences in his story.