Mediation ordered in PR shooting
SANDPOINT — Mediation was ordered Wednesday in the case of a man implicated in a shooting incident involving anglers fly fishing the Priest River.
The state and the defense in Leo Michael Inwood’s case both agreed to use civil mediation in an attempt to resolve felony criminal charges, court records show.
A preliminary hearing is set for Jan. 24 in case civil mediation bears no fruit.
Inwood, 42, and Eric Rampton Wood, 52, were charged in connection with the Sept. 13 shooting incident in which a 13-year-old boy was struck in the leg by incoming gunfire.
The teen who was shot and another teen, also 13, told Bonner County sheriff’s investigators that they were casting into the river when the motorized scooter they rode to the fishing hole was hit by incoming rounds. When the shooting subsided, the teens got back on the moped attempted to leave the area. That’s when the teen was struck in the femur, according to a probable cause affidavit.
The shots were allegedly fired from the deck of a partially constructed home that Wood and Inwood were at, court records indicate.
Wood is charged with discharging a firearm at an occupied vehicle, malicious injury to property for damage done to the scooter and unlawful possession of a firearm due to a prior felony conviction. Inwood is charged also charged with unlawful discharge of a firearm, malicious injury to property and concealment of evidence for allegedly hiding the firearms that were used in the incident.
Wood admitted firing gunshots, but told investigators that he was unaware he was targeting a moped or that there were people standing nearby, a probable cause affidavit indicates.
Wood is also being prosecuted as a persistent violator due to felony convictions in Nevada for burglary and desertion of a wife or child, court record show. The enhancement would add a minimum of five years in prison if convicted of the underlying charges.
Wood waived his right to a preliminary hearing and was bound over to 1st District Court, where pleaded not guilty to the charges last month. A two-day jury trial is set for February 2018.
Keith Kinnaird can be reached by email at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow him on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.