Whew. One day out of Missoula (to cover closing arguments, and the eventual verdict, in a lawsuit stemming from the 2004 suicide of a 16-year-old at Spring Creek Lodge Academy for troubled youth near Thompson Falls) and all heck breaks loose on the cops and courts beat.
Frightened Horse (Eugene Delacroix)
While I was out, the 64-year-old transient accused of robbing the Sterling Savings Bank downtown on Tuesday made his initial court appearance. Jamie Kelly writes Vincent Sullivan seemed surprised at his $100,000 bail.
Next week in Deer Lodge, a judge is supposed to set an execution date for Ronald Allen Smith, one of two men in Montana on death row. Smith, who is Canadian, is pleaded guilty to the 1982 kidnapping and murders of Harvey Mad Man, 24, and Thomas Running Rabbit, 20, in the woods near East Glacier.
And, on a much lighter note, horse owners in Three Forks and Dillon report thieves trotting off (hey, blame the headline writer, not me!) with hair from their horses’ manes and tails. Such hair can be valuable to makers of handcrafted horse bridles or other items or used as tail extensions for show horses.
Gwen Florio