Court: Guilty verdicts stand

SANDPOINT — First District Judge Steve Verby has declined to overturn guilty verdicts against a Bonner County man convicted of starting a shoot-out in which he was shot.

A jury of 10 women and two men found Richard Allen Larson guilty of two counts of aggravated assault last month for threatening his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend with a pistol in the Upper Pack River Valley in 2011.

Lora Adams testified during Larson’s trial that he became increasingly aggressive following the demise of their relationship, culminating in the violent confrontation on Maker’s Way. Adams told jurors he ultimately confronted her at a gate he erected on a road they shared and attacked her.

Adams’ boyfriend, John Chester Bilsky, went to check on her after she failed to arrive at the home and confronted Larson, who allegedly leveled a revolver at him and opened fire. Bilsky returned fire and hit Larson in the chest.

Larson took the stand in his own defense and categorically refuted the allegations, telling jurors Adams attacked him and Bilsky was the one who opened fire.

Jurors, however, found the state’s version of events to be more credible than that of the defense’s.

Chief Public Defender Isabella Robertson moved for the court to set aside the verdicts and acquit Larson because jurors appeared to apply Larson’s behavior leading up to the shooting to the day of the shooting. The defense further argued that the physical evidence supported Larson’s account of the clash rather than that of the alleged victims’.

“There was insufficient evidence to support that my client was the aggressor that night,” Robertson said at an April 19 hearing on the defense motion.

Bonner County Deputy Prosecutor Shane Greenbank said there are usually conflicting witness accounts.

“It’s the province of the jury to sort through that,” said Greenbank.

Verby ruled that matters of credibility and weight given to evidence were for the jury — not the court — to decide and declined to overturn the verdicts.

Larson, 60, is free on $30,000 bail while awaiting sentencing. A hearing date was not immediately available.