State pleased with jury's verdict
SANDPOINT - Bonner County Prosecutor Louis Marshall is satisfied with the verdict in an assault and intimidation trial despite an acquittal on one count and a hung jury on another.
Robert James Sutton Jr. was convicted last week of intimidating a witness in a methamphetamine investigation, but acquitted of menacing the drug informant with a cocked pistol. Jurors deadlocked on a burglary charge resulting from an allegation he burst into the informant's apartment in order to threaten and intimidate her.
"We are very pleased with the verdict as it sends a message that witness intimidation will not be tolerated in this community," Marshall said after Sutton's three-day trial in 1st District Court.
Sutton's defense counsel, Chief Public Defender Isabella Robertson, reserved comment until next week.
Sutton, 26, is scheduled to be sentenced on March 19. He faces up to five years in prison on the intimidation charge, although Sutton has admitted to two prior felony convictions, which qualified him as a persistent violator.
The persistent violator enhancement means Sutton faces a sentence of five years to life.
which would run consecutive to the sentence imposed for the intimidation conviction.
Sutton has a conviction in Kootenai County for a burglary in 2001 and a conviction in Bonner County for attempting to elude law officers during a high-speed chase in 2003.
Sutton, of Spokane Valley, was charged for allegedly bursting in a 28-year-old woman's downtown Sandpoint apartment and threatening her with a .45-caliber pistol on June 17, 2008. Sutton's 46-year-old father was likewise charged, although a judge threw out the case against him for lack of evidence.
Sandpoint Police, according to trial testimony, paid the woman $900 for information which led to the arrest of Michael Ray O'Neil, 37. O'Neil is the brother of Robert James Sutton Sr. and the uncle of Robert Sutton Jr.
O'Neil pleaded guilty to delivery of meth and drew a prison sentence of two to five years, although jurisdiction was retained and he was put on probation after serving six months, court records show.
At trial, the state argued the Suttons attacked the informant to dissuade her from testifying against O'Neil. The defense maintained it was a case of mistaken identity because the younger Sutton had an alibi.