Page 25 - Flathead Beacon // 12.24.14

FLATHEADBEACON.COM NEWS DECEMBER 24, 2014 | 25 The Roundup
From Beacon wire and news services
BITNEY’S
New Year’s Day
SALE
Starts Dec. 27th
30-50% OFF STOREWIDE
Open New Year’s Day
NOON - 4PM
65,000 sq ft of Real Savings Family owned for 63 years!
BITNEY’S
FURNITURE &
MATTRESS CO.
744 E Idaho Street • Kalispell 755-6033
www.bitneysfurniture.com
Open Mon - Sat 9 to 6 • Sundays Noon to 4
FLATHEAD
STATE JOBLESS RATE DROPS, FLATHEAD COUNTY’S RISES IN NOVEMBER
Montana’s unemployment rate dropped slightly to 4.3 percent in No- vember.
The rate is down 0.2 percentage points from October.
The state’s unemployment rate has decreased by a full percentage point since January. The U.S. unemploy- ment rate remained unchanged over the month at 5.8 percent.
In Flathead County, the non-season- ally unemployment rate in November was 5.8 percent, up slightly from Octo- ber’s rate of 5.1 percent. Lincoln Coun- ty’s non-seasonally unemployment rate was 10.6 percent, and Lake County’s was 5.8 percent. Sanders County came in at 9.7 percent. Glacier County had the high- est rate of unemployment in November, with 10.8 percent.
State Labor Commissioner Pam Bucy says expectations are for Mon- tana to have a strong holiday season this month in retail and tourism.
Bucy says the economy is expected to continue growing into next year.
WHITEFISH WOMAN DIES, CHILDREN INJURED IN CRASH
A 27-year-old Whitefish woman was killed in a single-vehicle rollover on icy roads near Columbia Falls.
The Montana Highway Patrol says Astrid Vang was westbound on Hodg- son Road on Dec. 19 when she hit a patch of ice while trying to pass another car. Trooper Eric Thoreson says she lost con- trol of the vehicle, which went off the road and rolled. Vang was thrown from the vehicle and later pronounced dead at Kalispell Regional Medical Center.
Vang’s children — a 7-year-old boy and a 5-year-old girl — were taken to the hospital for treatment of minor injuries.
1 KILLED, 1 INJURED IN LAKE COUNTY PLANE CRASH
The National Transportation Safe- ty Board is investigating a plane crash northwest of Ronan that killed the pilot and injured a passenger on Dec. 16.
At approximately 4:30 p.m., the Lake County Sheriff’s Office received a report of a small plane crashing into the side of a hill near Round Butte. The pilot, 33-year-old Brett Thoft of Alaska, was pronounced dead at the scene and his body was taken to Missoula for autopsy. The only passenger aboard the plane, Tim Schauss of Lake County, was airlift- ed to Kalispell Regional Medical Center. He was in stable condition on Dec. 17, ac- cording to the hospital.
The plane was a two-person tan- dem Piper aircraft and although the ex- act flight path is unknown at this time, sources say the plane took off from the Ronan airport just before the crash.
The Federal Aviation Administration and the NTSB were notified of the crash and investigators from Portland, Oregon will begin gathering evidence from the scene. NTSB spokesperson Keith Hollo- way said the investigation will take any- where from 12 to 18 months.
MONTANA
MISSOULA MAN CONVICTED IN EXCHANGE STUDENT’S DEATH
A Montana man who shot and killed a German exchange student caught tres- passing in his garage was convicted of deliberate homicide on Dec. 17 despite arguing that a state “castle doctrine” law allowed him to use deadly force to pro- tect his home and family.
Cheers erupted in the packed court- room when the verdict in the case of Markus Kaarma, 30, was read. The par- ents of the victim, 17-year-old Diren Dede, hugged and cried.
“It is very good,” Dede’s father, Celal Dede, said with tears in his eyes. “Long live justice.”
Kaarma was stoic as he was led from the courtroom. He faces a minimum penalty of 10 years in prison when he is sentenced Feb. 11. His lawyers plan to appeal.
At a hearing, Diren Dede’s parents gave statements to the judge to consider at sentencing. Prosecutors asked for the hearing so Celal and Gulcin Dede won’t have to return to Missoula in February.
Kaarma shot Dede in the early hours of April 27 after being alerted to an in- truder by motion sensors. Witnesses tes- tified Kaarma fired four shotgun blasts at Dede, who was unarmed.
Kaarma’s attorneys argued at trial that he feared for his life, didn’t know if the intruder was armed, and was on edge because his garage was burglarized at least once in the weeks before the shoot- ing. They said Kaarma’s actions were justifiable because he feared for his fam- ily’s safety.
Prosecutors argued Kaarma was in- tent on luring an intruder into his ga- rage and then harming that person. That night, Kaarma left his garage door par- tially open with a purse inside. He fired four shotgun blasts, pausing between the third and fourth shots, witnesses said. Three witnesses testified they heard Kaarma say his house had been burglarized and he’d been waiting up nights to shoot an intruder.
For up-to-the-minute news, visit flatheadbeacon.com