Page 11 - Flathead Beacon // 3.4.15

FLATHEADBEACON.COM NEWS MARCH 4, 2015 | 11
Kalispell Man Sentenced
community
Tyler Huston.
Police later talked to Huston, who
said he had not had a phone conversa- tion with Thorne that morning but did receive a series of text messages asking him to tell police Thorne’s version of events.
Police obtained search warrants for the two men’s phone records and found text messages that confirmed Thorne had asked his friend to lie to police. Thorne also asked Huston to “please de- lete call logs and texts.”
A few weeks after the incident, police again met with Thorne and confronted him with the text messages and the in- consistencies with his previous state- ments.
Thorne admitted that he was up- set with his daughter on the morning of April 13 because she would not take a bottle. However, he said he did not re- member what happened after he yelled at the baby because he had “blacked out,” according to court documents.
In July, Thorne pleaded not guilty to charges of assault on a minor and tam- pering with witnesses and informants, both felonies. The tampering charge was dropped in the plea agreement.
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Brandan Thorne received 15 years with the Depart- ment of Corrections after he beat his 5-month-old daughter in 2014
By JUSTIN FRANZ of the Beacon
A Kalispell man who beat his 5-month-old daughter last spring was sentenced on Feb. 26 to 15 years of su- pervision under the state’s Department of Corrections with 10 years suspended.
Brandan Thorne was charged with felony assault on a minor last year and pleaded no contest on Dec. 23.
As part of the plea agreement, Thorne will have to complete drug re- hab and counseling in the coming years. During his sentencing, he blamed the as- sault on years of drug use.
“All I want to do is be clean and so- ber,” he said. “I’ve always had the burden of drug addiction.”
According to court documents, po- lice received a call from a Kalispell woman on April 13, 2014, saying that she heard what sounded like a baby being
beaten in the next apartment. The wom- an told police that she heard a crying baby and her neighbor yelling “shut up!” before hearing repeated banging against the wall between the two residences.
While police were en route, dispatch received another call from the same lo- cation reporting that an infant there had stopped breathing. When police arrived they found Thorne holding his uncon- scious 5-month-old daughter.
The baby was rushed to Kalispell Re- gional Medical Center in critical condi- tion and was then airlifted to Spokane for additional treatment. In Spokane, the baby was evaluated and it was de- termined that she was suffering from retinal hemorrhages throughout both eyes. The baby also began to suffer from numerous seizures. According to court documents, the baby continued to re- ceive medical treatment for months af- ter and has undergone multiple surger- ies.
At the hospital, Thorne told police that he had been holding his daughter when he tripped. When police confront- ed Thorne with information that the neighbor had heard him yelling, he told authorities that he had also been on the phone having an argument with a friend,
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for Beating Infant
Libby Man Pleads Not Guilty to Deliberate Homicide
Details emerge in Jan. 31 shooting death of Thomas Lawrence Veloz
By JUSTIN FRANZ of the Beacon
A Libby man accused of shooting and killing another man in his living room and then not reporting the crime for 18 hours has pleaded not guilty to charges of deliberate homicide and tampering with evidence.
Henry Carl Schroeder, 74, appeared in Lincoln County District Court on March 2, a month after he was arrested for allegedly murdering Thomas Law- rence Veloz, 38, on Jan. 31. Schroeder was initially charged with negligent ho- micide, but prosecutors increased the charge to deliberate homicide in Febru- ary.
Kimberlee Ann Patterson, 43, was also arrested and charged with felony evidence tampering after police dis- covered Veloz’s body inside Schroeder’s home on Feb. 1.
In an interview with investigators,
Schroeder said that he was the one who had shot Veloz on Jan. 31 after the man stormed his house.
According to court documents, Pat- terson and Veloz were dating but the couple had a falling out in late January. On the evening of Jan. 31, Patterson was at Schroeder’s house and said that her relationship with Veloz was over and she asked if it was OK if she stayed there because her ex-boyfriend was on a “war- path.”
At about 8 p.m., Veloz allegedly barged into Schroeder’s house and told him, “I’m going to kill you for messing around with my girlfriend.” Veloz then grabbed Patterson by the arm and told her to get in the car. Patterson pulled away and Schroeder ran into his bed- room to get a .380-caliber pistol. Schro- eder then allegedly shot Veloz five times.
After the shooting, Schroeder picked up some of the shells and covered Veloz’s body with a blue blanket.
The following morning a friend stopped by Schroeder’s house, saw Ve- loz’s body and went to police at about 3:30 p.m.
Not long after, officers from the
Libby Police Department and Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office went to Schro- eder’s home at 1305 Washington Ave. Police called Schroeder and demanded that he come outside. When Schroeder exited the house, officers asked him if there was anyone inside and he said, “there is but I shot him,” according to court records. Police then entered the home and found Veloz’s body covered under a blue blanket with a large pool of blood near his head.
Schroeder was taken to the Lincoln County Detention Facility where he al- legedly admitted to police that he had shot Veloz. He also said that Patterson was inside the home at the time of the shooting. She was arrested later that afternoon after her car slid into a ditch just south of Libby.
Patterson is due to be arraigned in Lincoln County District Court on March 9 for tampering with evidence, a felony.
Schroeder is being held on $500,000 bail. If convicted of deliberate homicide, Schroeder could face up to 100 years in prison. He is expected to go to trial in May. www.ThreeRiversBankMontana.com
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