Further jail in question in accessory to murder case

SANDPOINT — It remains unclear if a young man from Clark Fork will face any additional incarceration for his involvement in the killing of Michael Wyatt Smith.

First District Judge Barbara Buchanan has yet to decide whether she will bind herself to a plea agreement which proposes that Christopher Robin Garlin be sentenced to time served for being an accessory to Smith’s murder.

Garlin, 19, was to be sentenced earlier this month, although it was postponed because Buchanan was still waiting on a presentence report, a document which details a defendant’s crime and their personal background.

The sentencing hearing was reset for June 3. If Buchanan declines to adhere to the plea agreement, Garlin would be allowed to withdraw his guilty plea and proceed to trial.

Garlin is free and on federal probation in connection with a firearms heist at a Ponderay pawn shop in the winter of 2011. Austin Blake Thrasher and his wife, Jennifer, were also implicated in the Pawn Now break-in.

While being held on theft and burglary charges, Garlin disclosed to investigators that he witnessed Austin Thrasher shoot Smith to death with a pistol in Cocolalla.

Smith, also 19, of Hope, was reported missing in the fall of 2011. Authorities allege Smith was killed shortly after his disappearance.

Garlin and Jennifer Thrasher, 24, were charged in state court with being accessories to Smith’s murder for initially withholding their knowledge of the crime. Austin Thrasher, meanwhile, was charged with first-degree murder.

Smith was allegedly slain because he was seeing a teenage Clark Fork girl who Austin Thrasher also had a relationship with.

Austin Thrasher, 20, pleaded guilty in February and was sentenced earlier this month to life in prison with eligibility for parole after 25 years. He was given a concurrent two-year term for the Pawn Now firearms thefts.

Jennifer Thrasher and Garlin were prosecuted in U.S. District Court for the firearms heist and received two-year terms, although the sentences were later amended to time served, federal court records show.

Jennifer Thrasher’s sentence in the accessory-to-murder case ran concurrently with the sentence in her federal case, an arrangement which is being sought to resolve Garlin’s cases.