Shooter in home-invasion robbery pleads guilty

SANDPOINT — A Sandpoint teen who shot an Elmira man in the face following a home-invasion robbery pleaded guilty to attempted murder on Monday.

Joseph Eugene Cleveland faces up to 15 years in prison when he’s sentenced in 1st District Court on May 9.

Cleveland is accused of firing on the robbery victim from outside the home after the heist. The victim, who was seated at a table by a window narrowly escaped being gravely injured or killed.

The shot from the .40-caliber pistol grazed him in the cheek and passed through the bill of the 57-year-old man’s baseball cap.

Cleveland, 19, testified at an alleged accomplice’s preliminary hearing that he was high on methamphetamine when he was goaded into opening fire on the robbery victim, ostensibly to keep him from identifying his assailants.

Cleveland told the court that he reluctantly complied with Joseph Vencil Kluck’s alleged execution order. Although Kluck did not fire on the alleged victim, he’s also charged with attempted murder for ordering Cleveland to kill the man.

Kluck, 22, faces additional robbery, second-degree kidnapping, unlawful possession of a firearm and a charging enhancement for using a weapon during the commission of a felony. He remains jailed with bail set at $150,000 and a five-day jury trial set for June.

The alleged victim testified at Kluck’s preliminary hearing that his two attackers mistook him for a former roommate, whom they intended to rob of drugs and money. The man said he was bound, gagged, blindfolded and doused with gasoline during the attack.

After Kluck and Cleveland stole various personal belongings, they retreated from the home and the man was able to free himself. But Cleveland testified that he doubled back and opened fire on the man.

Jonathan Lee Comstock, also 22, pleaded guilty earlier this month to being an after-the-fact accessory. Comstock testified that he drove Kluck and Cleveland to the home, but was unaware of their violent intentions.

Comstock is slated to be sentenced on June 3.

All three suspects were tracked to a Sandpoint residence and flushed from home with tear gas following a lengthy standoff with law enforcement.