Bigfork woman gets eight years for robbery

A Bigfork woman is headed to prison for eight years, followed by 22 years of probation, after robbing a store in 2012 trying to rob another in 2013.

Julie Ann DeShazer, 47, tried to leave the Kalispell Walgreens on Oct. 1, 2012, with items she had not paid for, then drove into the store manager who confronted her before driving away.

In July 2013, DeShazer tried to rob the Northwest Montana Veterans Food Pantry in Evergreen, claiming she had a gun and ordering an employee to empty the register. She was apprehended after trying to escape through a nearby department store. Those crimes netted her a pair of felony robbery convictions, for which she received the eight-year prison sentence and 12 years of probation.

DeShazer’s new convictions constituted a violation of a 10-year suspended sentence she had received for a bail-jumping conviction in 1997.

District Judge Robert Allison handed down the sentences during a Thursday hearing in Flathead District Court.

Vidulich pleads not guilty

Christopher Vidulich, 56, pleaded not guilty to two felony counts of assault with a weapon and an additional felony count of burglary.

According to Lake County court documents, on Dec. 25 Lake County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a call of domestic disturbance with shots fired near Ferndale. Vidulich’s estranged wife was one of two individuals present at the location, and told officers that Vidulich had kicked open the front door. She had had a pistol and “pointed it at [Vidulich], telling him to leave.”

Court records state that Vidulich charged and grabbed the gun, which discharged several times in the ensuing struggle. Eventually the gun was taken away from Vidulich, who was ordered to leave, and later arrested by a Kalispell police officer. Vidulich has an omnibus hearing on Mar.ch 26.