Page 23 - Flathead Beacon // 2.18.15

FLATHEADBEACON.COM NEWS FEBRUARY 18, 2015 | 23 The Roundup
From Beacon wire and news services
FLATHEAD
PROPOSED WATER COMPACT HEARD AT LEGISLATURE
A water allocation agreement among the state of Montana, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and the fed- eral government was heard for the first time in the Montana Legislature on Feb.
16. Senate Bill 262 would delineate cer- tain water rights to the tribes on the Flathead Indian Reservation while the oversight of an irrigation project that many non-tribal farmers and ranchers rely on in northwestern Montana would remain in the hands of its current opera- tor.
The compact, decades in the mak- ing, would establish a board of state and tribal representatives to oversee new ap- propriations and future changes in use.
The Flathead Reservation is last of seven American Indian tribal reserva- tions in Montana to settle with the state on rights to in-stream flows.
The bill is a renegotiated version of a proposed compact that failed during the 2013 Legislature.
LAKESIDE MAN CHARGED IN POLSON ATM THEFT
The Lake County attorney has filed a felony theft charge against a Lakeside man suspected of stealing an automat- ed teller machine from a Polson bank in late January.
KERR-AM reports Steven Eschen- bacher filed the information against 32-year-old Cory Robert Franklin last week.
Franklin was arrested in Flathead County on Feb. 5 on several charges, in- cluding suspicion of stealing a pickup truck that was used in the ATM theft. He remained jailed there on Friday.
Court records say the ATM theft net- ted $24,000. The money has not been re- covered.
Polson police are looking for a sec- ond suspect in the ATM theft, but he has not been identified.
Police said the two suspects had cased Polson area banks prior to the Jan. 30 theft.
ST. IGNATIUS MAN DENIES CHARGES HE SHOT AT TRIBAL OFFICER
A 39-year-old St. Ignatius man who was on probation for trying to hit a Lake County sheriff’s deputy with his car has denied a charge that he fired a shot at an off-duty tribal police officer last month.
James Wilson Allen pleaded not guilty last week to assault with a weap-
on.
At the time of the Jan. 20 shooting,
Allen was wanted for violating his pro-
bation on a 2013 criminal endangerment conviction for trying to run into a depu-
ty. The latest charge alleges he fired a shot at Confederated Salish and Koote- nai tribal police officer T.J. Haynes, who tried to arrest Allen on outstanding war- rants. Haynes was not injured.
District Judge James Manley set Al- len’s trial for June 1. Allen remains jailed in Lake County on $250,000 bond.
MONTANA
MISSOULA MAN GETS 70 YEARS IN GERMAN EXCHANGE STUDENT’S DEATH
A Montana man wasn’t defending his family but rather hunting someone when he shot and killed a German high school student who was trespassing in his garage, a judge said on Feb. 12 as he sentenced the man to 70 years in prison with no parole possible for at least 20 years.
“Here you have a 12-guage shotgun, not to protect your family but to go after someone. And go after someone you did,” District Judge Ed McLean said sternly in sentencing Markus Kaarma for de- liberate homicide in the April 27 killing of 17-year-old Diren Dede of Hamburg, Germany.
“You pose too great a risk to society to be anywhere else but the Montana State Prison,” McLean said. “Good luck to you, son.”
Kaarma’s case was closely followed in Germany and brought scrutiny in the U.S. to Montana’s “stand your ground” law that allows the use of force to protect life and property. At least 30 U.S. states have such laws.
In sentencing Kaarma, the judge made clear there are strict limits to resi- dents’ rights to use force while claiming self-defense.
At trial, prosecutors argued Kaarma was intent on luring an intruder into his garage after it was burglarized at least once before the shooting. Three wit- nesses testified they heard Kaarma say he’d been waiting up nights to shoot an intruder.
The night of the shooting, Kaarma left his garage door partially open and placed a purse inside. Alerted by a mo- tion detector, he entered the darkened garage and fired four shotgun blasts, pausing between the third and fourth shots, witnesses testified.
Lead detective Guy Baker testi- fied that the first three shots were low and seemed to follow Dede as he moved acrossKaarma’sgarage.Thefourthshot was aimed higher and struck Dede in the head, Baker said.
Dede, an exchange student at Big Sky High School, was unarmed.
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