Attorneys outline cases in Sagle murder trial

   SANDPOINT — Jurors hearing the second-degree murder case against a Sagle man were presented with starkly contrasting accounts Wednesday of the shooting which claimed the life of Elvin “Eli” Holt last year.

   There is no disagreement that Holt was shot to death by James Matthew Anderson during a confrontation outside Anderson’s trailer at the Travel America mobile home park on the night of Thanksgiving 2008.

   Holt and his stepbrother, Ian James Freir, went to Anderson’s trailer at about 11 p.m. to confront Anderson about his involvement in a battery on a close friend of Holt’s the previous month.

   But the nature of the confrontation and the circumstances of the shooting remain in dispute.

   Bonner County Prosecutor Louis Marshall conceded during his opening remarks that there was an argument outside the trailer, but emphasized the confrontation was not physical and Anderson’s use of force via a .44 magnum revolver was unjustifiable.

   Marshall told jurors Holt, 30, was shot through the eye at pointblank range and died instantly as Freir tried to convince his stepbrother to leave. Holt had no hand wounds that would suggest fists were thrown and he was clutching a ring of car keys, said Marshall.

   “This is not justifiable. The facts and the evidence will show that this was not physical,” said Marshall, who asked jurors to be on the lookout for the inconsistencies in Anderson’s remarks to police. Marshall argued the shooting was an intentional act.

   Chief Public Defender Isabella Robertson challenged assertions that the confrontation was not physical and said Anderson, his wife and two young children were threatened with harm. Robertson added that Holt made statements indicating he had been periodically stalking Anderson and his wife in the weeks leading up to the shooting.

   According to prior testimony in the case, Anderson went inside his home and retrieved the handgun while Holt and Anderson’s wife, Leanne, argued outside the trailer. Freir, apparently believing Anderson was going to get a phone and call police, followed him to the trailer, but immediately retreated when Anderson emerged with the firearm.

   “He had a good reason to have that weapon and to have it cocked,” said Robertson, who told jurors that it accidentally fired when Freir hit her client’s arm.

   Robertson downplayed the inconsistencies in Anderson’s statements to authorities as a manifestation of her client’s shame for being involved with the battery on Holt’s friend. Anderson originally told authorities he did not know who Holt was.

   She added that Freir’s statements to authorities are also fraught with inconsistencies.

   The jury of eight men and six women also heard frantic 911 calls that were placed immediately after the shooting.

   “They threatened me and my wife. I have no idea who they are,” a shaken and upset Anderson can be heard telling a dispatcher.

   Freir, who fled to another trailer in the park after witnessing his stepbrother’s gruesome slaying, can be heard pleading for help and anguishing over Holt’s death.

   “Was it an accident?” a dispatcher asks Freir.

   “No!,” Freir replies.

   “What happened to make him shoot him?” asks the dispatcher.

   “I don’t know. I don’t have a clue!” Freir answers.