Car shooter conviction upheld

COEUR d'ALENE — Before appealing the verdict, Daniel Montgomery was found guilty in September 2015 of unlawful discharge of a firearm into an occupied vehicle near his Coeur d'Alene home.

Montgomery, a former U.S. Marine, argued the state abused its discretion when it allowed the prosecution to use two undisclosed witnesses.

Last week, the Idaho Court of Appeals upheld the First District Court’s decision.

"The district court did not err when it determined that rebuttal witnesses need not be disclosed pursuant to Idaho Criminal Rule 16(b)(6)," the Appeals Court said in a court document. "But even if that was error, the error was harmless. Additionally, the State did not engage in prosecutorial misconduct during its closing argument. We affirm the district court’s decision."

Montgomery received an eight-year suspended prison sentence with four years supervised probation in November 2015. He was also fined $1,500 and ordered to pay defense costs of $2,000 and complete 400 hours of community service.

In September 2014, a driver swerved through Montgomery's cul-de-sac on Kaleigh Court, striking a trash can before turning around. After seeing this, Montgomery walked to the middle of the street and pointed his handgun at the approaching vehicle, forcing the driver to stop.

According to court documents, the driver got out of his car and had a verbal exchange with Montgomery before getting back into the vehicle and driving forward, striking Montgomery in the process of fleeing.

Montgomery, 44, said he fired five rounds at the vehicle. The car's two occupants were unharmed.

"When I discharged the weapon at the vehicle it was not being used as a vehicle, it was being used as a weapon," Montgomery told The Press in 2015. "It was being used as a weapon to assault people who were in the street."

He was acquitted on a charge of felony aggravated assault from the incident, and another similar charge was dismissed because a witness was uncooperative.

During the trial the prosecution called four rebuttal witnesses, but before the third witness testified, Montgomery’s attorney objected that the two remaining witnesses were not disclosed prior to trial. The court relied on precedent and the relevance of their testimony, however, as the basis for overruling the objection.

Montgomery, who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, told The Press following his conviction that he shot at the vehicle to protect people on his street.

The appeals court did note it wasn't pleased with the prosecution's tactics.

"This is not to say we support the prosecutor’s behavior at trial, nor do we excuse or encourage such conduct," wrote the judges. "We do not understand why prosecutors continue to jeopardize otherwise clean convictions with this sort of behavior, particularly in light of this Court’s previous holdings. In this regard, we understand Montgomery’s frustration. "