National Roundup

Idaho
Man convicted in shootout gets 18 years in prison
GRANGEVILLE, Idaho (AP) — A former participant in an armed occupation at an Oregon wildlife refuge in 2016 has been sentenced to 18 years in prison in connection with his role in a police shootout in Idaho last year.

Sean L. Anderson of Riggins was convicted in April of felony aggravated assault on a police officer and the use of a deadly weapon in the commission of a crime. Second District Judge Gregory FitzMaurice sentenced Anderson on Monday, saying the defendant’s justification for why he shot at police after they tried to pull him over was “shallow,” The Lewiston Tribune reported.

“Your actions in this case are the ones that escalated everything,” the judge told Anderson. “I cannot understand the degree to which you responded.”

Anderson was arrested several days after a police pursuit and shootout July 18, 2020, following an attempted traffic stop for an apparent equipment violation.

Police said he led authorities on a pursuit lasting about 30 miles (48 kilometers), from Kamiah to Ferdinand. The pursuit ended on a dead end road when officers said Anderson pulled out a 12-gauge shotgun and fired. The officers returned fire and Anderson was hit in the face as he reportedly attempted to reload his shotgun.

No officers were injured. Anderson was shot in the eye and has permanent vision loss, hearing damage and a brain injury, FitzMaurice said.

Anderson had previously been convicted of misdemeanor trespassing for his role in the 2016 armed standoff at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in southeastern Oregon led by anti-government activist Ammon Bundy. Anderson joined occupiers who were protesting what they said was the federal government taking over private land in the area, and was one of the last four holdouts during the 41-day occupation.

Anderson said that two days before the Idaho shootout, he’d attended a rally in Emmett, Idaho, organized by Bundy, and “drawn a line in the sand,” vowing that he would never be taken back to jail.

That’s why he refused to cooperate when Lewis County Deputy Walter Wilkinson pulled him over and asked to see his driver’s license, Anderson told the court.

Wilkinson described Anderson as having “radical anti-government views.”

But Anderson told the court that he disagreed with the prosecution’s depiction of events, and said he had hoped that the officers would kill him. He said he was depressed, had been drinking and was upset because of what he believed was governmental overreach in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

North Dakota
Lawyer: Man disturbed when he killed mom and police officer
FARGO, N.D. (AP) — The attorney for a man charged with killing his mother and a North Dakota police officer during a shootout with law enforcement who were serving eviction papers said Tuesday that although his client pulled the trigger to cause both deaths, he should not be found guilty of murder.

Defense attorney Steven Mottinger told a jury during his closing arguments that Salamah Pendleton was experiencing “extreme emotional disturbance” because officers came to evict him and his mother from their Grand Forks apartment despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, and later because he thought officers had killed his mother, for whom he was the sole caretaker.

“Clearly he is distraught. He did not perceive that he was responsible for her death,” Mottinger said before the jury began deliberations. “He was afraid. If that is not an extreme emotional disturbance, I don’t know what is.”

Pendleton, 42, faces two counts of murder for the May 2020 killings of his mother, Lola Moore, and Officer Cody Holte. Investigators say Pendleton shot his mother while firing wildly on officers after they entered his home and killed Holte during a second round of gunfire. Pendleton and a Grand Forks County sheriff’s deputy, Cpl. Ron Nord, were also wounded.

Grand Forks County prosecutor Carmell Mattison said Pendleton prepared for the confrontation by stocking up on ammunition for his semiautomatic rifle. She said Pendleton fired a minimum of 48 rounds using a “high velocity weapon with full metal jacket bullets.”

During the first exchange, Pendleton shot 20 rounds “blindly” through the bedroom wall, not knowing who was on the other side, Mattison said. Ballistics tests showed that one of those bullets killed his mother.

“The only person who was prepared on May 27, 2020, was the defendant,” Mattison said. Pendleton was “waiting for law enforcement to open that door so he could pull the trigger,” she said.

Mottinger suggested that manslaughter charges would be more appropriate for Pendleton, who faces life without parole if he’s convicted of murder.

“He was a mess. That doesn’t excuse his conduct, but it sure goes a long, long way to explaining it, doesn’t it?” Mottinger told the jury.

Jurors could convict Pendleton of manslaughter or negligent homicide charges if they don’t believe he is guilty of murder. Prosecutors are also required to prove that Pendleton did not act in self-defense, in which case he could be found not guilty in either of the killings.

Mattison said self-defense wouldn’t apply because there’s no evidence that the officers used excessive force. Rather, it was the officers who were defending themselves, she said.

Pendleton testified that he didn’t mean to kill anyone  and that his mother was unintentionally struck by a ricocheting bullet from his rifle. He said that after he saw his mother’s body lying in a pool of blood, “I lost my mind and I didn’t know what to do.”

Mattison said there’s no evidence that officers fired first, as Pendleton insisted. When Nord broke into Pendleton’s bedroom, it took less than a second before Pendleton fired a bullet that whizzed by his head, according to investigators.

Pendleton is also charged with three counts of attempted murder, criminal mischief, terrorizing, reckless endangerment and possession with intent to deliver marijuana. Authorities say officers found large quantities of the drug, paraphernalia and cash in the apartment.

Holte, 29, was the first officer to be killed in Grand Forks  since 1966 and the 58th police officer in the state to die while on duty.