Man gets suspended sentence for shooting at occupied car

COEUR d'ALENE — A 41-year-old Coeur d'Alene man received an eight-year suspended prison sentence for firing several rounds from his handgun into an occupied car on his street.

Daniel N. Montgomery was found guilty by a 1st District Court jury in September of felony unlawful discharge of a gun at an occupied vehicle.

Judge Cynthia Meyer last week gave Montgomery four years fixed and four years indeterminate. She suspended that sentence and placed him on supervised probation for four years.

He was also fined $1,500 and ordered to pay defense costs of $2,000 and complete 400 hours of community service.

Montgomery, who was an active-duty U.S. Marine in the 1990s and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, told The Press following his conviction that he shot at the vehicle in September 2014 to protect people on his street.

No one was injured in the shooting in the 1300 block of Kaleigh Court. Montgomery lives on the cul-de-sac.

Kootenai County Deputy Prosecutor Stanley Mortensen said during the sentencing hearing that only in Montgomery's warped mind was he justified in shooting at the vehicle.

Mortensen said Montgomery never would have been in danger from the vehicle driving down the street if Montgomery would have stayed in his driveway instead of walking into the street.

At sentencing, Montgomery said he apologized to his neighbors for his actions that night.

Meyer told him he doesn't live in an age of vigilante justice.