Remington hears Odom plead 'not guilty'
(LISA JAMES/Hagadone News Network) Kyle Odom waits for his arraignment at the Kootenai County Courthouse on Tuesday afternoon. Odom is accused of shooting local pastor Tim Remington in 2016.
LISA JAMES/PressPastor Tim Remington, center, is greeted by a woman showing her support on Tuesday, after the arraignment of Kyle Odom, the man who shot him six times in 2016.
LISA JAMES/PressJudge Lansing Haynes addresses defendant Kyle Odom, left, and Odom's lawyer, Christopher Schwartz, during Odom's arraignment at the Kootenai County Courthouse on Tuesday afternoon. Odom is accused of shooting local pastor Tim Remington in 2016.
Wearing a sport jacket and open shirt, pastor Tim Remington left Kootenai County District Court Tuesday following a hearing in which the man accused of shooting him in a flurry of gunfire a year ago pleaded not guilty to aggravated battery.
Kyle Odom, 30, entered his plea in First District Court to the felony charge and a firearm enhancement that carries a combined 30-year prison sentence. He was originally charged with attempted murder, but the charge was amended last year.
“I don’t have any anxiety or fear,” Remington said. “I feel bad for him, I really do. If Kyle comes out and is a changed person, he could be my best friend.”
Physically, Remington said he feels well and has mostly recovered from being shot with six hollow-point rounds from Odom’s .45-caliber handgun. Mostly, he said, he has pain in his right arm and hand, which appeared swollen Tuesday.
“The hand is the problem,” Remington said. But, “I’m feeling better all the time.”
Odom, a former Marine, is accused of shooting Remington in the parking lot of his church, The Altar in Coeur d’Alene. Following the shooting 13 months ago, Odom fled to Washington, D.C., where he was arrested after throwing items over a fence onto the White House lawn. He was extradited back to Idaho and has been in the Kootenai County jail on a $500,000 bond following several months of mental health treatment.
At Tuesday’s arraignment, Odom, sporting red jailhouse clothing with his hands and feet shackled, sat quietly until his case was called, and then briefly but clearly answered Judge Lansing Haynes’ inquiries.
Odom said he understood the proceedings before entering a plea of not guilty to the felonies.
Tuesday’s hearing was a reset, of sorts, since a First District judge in December put the brakes on any upcoming hearings pending an extensive period of mental health treatment because Odom had in previous months been unable to help his counsel with his defense.
In a manifesto Odom allegedly wrote that is part of the court record, Odom said his life had been ruined by “an intelligent species of amphibian-humanoid from Mars.”
Odom waived a March probable cause hearing, which automatically bound him over to felony court, and Haynes set aside five days, beginning Aug. 8, for a jury trial.
In the hallway outside the courtroom, surrounded by a smattering of friends, family and church members, Remington said he has no animosity for Odom. He spent several days last year in mediation with Odom in an effort to resolve the case, and met Odom’s family. The mediation did not lead to a resolution.
Haynes set a July 20 pretrial conference, and said a date to address pretrial motions, along with a schedule to release the names of expert witnesses, would be scheduled later.