Accessories in murder case enter pleas

SANDPOINT — Two accessories in a Bonner County homicide pleaded not guilty on Monday.

Jennifer Dunnagan Thrasher and Christopher Robin Garlin are scheduled to be tried separately in 1st District Court in July. They are accused of initially withholding knowledge of the shooting death of Michael Wyatt Smith last fall.

They are charged with being accessories to a felony offense, which is punishable by up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

Thrasher’s husband, Austin, allegedly shot Smith to death with a pistol in Cocolalla last September. He is charged with first-degree murder. A preliminary hearing in his case is planned for April 2, according to court documents.

Bonner County Prosecutor Louis Marshall has filed a required notice that the state will not seek the death penalty against Austin Thrasher, a 19-year-old from Cocolalla.

Blake Thrasher is being held at the Bonner County Jail in lieu of $500,000. Bail is set at $50,000 for Garlin and Jennifer Thrasher.

All three suspects were already in custody for allegedly burglarizing a Ponderay Pawn Shop last December. They are facing local charges for the burglary, in addition to federal charges because firearms were taken during the heist.

Marshall said the filing of federal charges against the trio appears to be imminent.

Smith, a 19-year-old who had been living in Hope, disappeared last September. The Thrashers and Garlin picked him up and said they were going to go party. Instead, he was shot in the woods and his body was placed makeshift grave about 30 miles north of the kill site.

Garlin, an 18-year-old from Clark Fork, disclosed to investigators in January that he witnessed Smith’s slaying. Jennifer Thrasher, 22, of Cocolalla, led investigators to the burial site last month, according to court documents.