Trials ordered in home-invasion robbery case

SANDPOINT — A Sandpoint man was ordered Wednesday to stand trial in connection with a home-invasion robbery in which an Elmira man was shot in the face and doused with gasoline.

Joseph Vencil Kluck Jr. was bound over to 1st District Court on amended charges following a preliminary hearing in Bonner County Magistrate Court. Two accomplices in the alleged attack, Jonathan Lee Comstock and Joseph Eugene Cleveland, waived their right to a preliminary hearing and were also bound over to 1st District Court on amended charges.

The March 10 attack snapped into sharper relief during Kluck’s preliminary hearing.

Kluck, 22, was initially accused of firing the shot that struck the 57-year-old robbery victim in the face, but Cleveland testified on Wednesday that he was the one who fired the pistol through the window from outside the home after the robbery.

Cleveland, 19, testified Kluck ordered him to cut the man’s throat, but he refused. Kluck then insisted Cleveland shoot the man.

“He said, ‘I need you to take care of him,’” Cleveland said on the stand.

Cleveland, who admitted he was “high as a kite” after earlier injecting methamphetamine intravenously, approached a window and opened fire.

The alleged victim, by a stroke of luck, was only grazed in the cheek by a shot fired from a .40-caliber semiautomatic pistol.

Comstock, 22, testified that he drove Cleveland and Kluck to the residence under the belief that they were merely picking up personal property.

The alleged victim told the court that two males with bandanas covering their faces entered his home in the early-morning hours and ordered him at gunpoint to lie on the ground. His hands were bound with electrical cord, and he was gagged and blindfolded.

“They threw gas in my face and asked if I wanted to become a Roman candle,” the man testified.

The alleged victim managed to free himself and take a seat at a table beside the window after the intruders left with a chainsaw, keys and other miscellaneous items. He suspected that the intruders, who claimed to be law officers, were targeting a former roommate to steal drugs and money from.

Kluck is charged with attempted murder for demanding that Cleveland shoot the victim. He’s further charged with second-degree kidnapping, unlawful possession of a firearm due to a felony child molestation conviction in Washington state and using a firearm in the commission of felony offenses.

Comstock was originally charged with robbery, but now faces a charge of being an after-the-fact accessory to the crime. Cleveland is charged with attempted murder.

Judge Justin Julian found there was sufficient evidence to justify trying Kluck. The ruling came without argument by Prosecutor Louis Marshall or Deputy Public Defender Dan Taylor, who called no defense witnesses during the hearing.

Kluck remains jailed with bail set at $150,000. Cleveland and Comstock are also jailed with bail set at $50,000 apiece.