Canyon man sentenced again for decade-old assault

A 27-year-old Martin City man was sentenced to five years with the Montana Department of Corrections, all suspended, after his decade-old sentence for a brutal assault in the Canyon was revoked for the third time.

Karl Tallent was 17 when Bill Matthews was brutally beaten in the Deerlick Saloon parking lot in Martin City. Tallent, who continued to live in Martin City, has faced petitions for revocation four times since December 2003, when he was initially charged with felony assault and criminal mischief.

After his charge was amended to felony criminal endangerment, Flathead County District Court Judge Katherine Curtis sentenced Tallent in September 2004 to eight years in prison, all suspended, and $128,845 in restitution.

Matthews suffered six skull fractures, a broken hand and a broken arm. He was airlifted in a coma to Kalispell Regional Medical Center and then to Missoula for brain surgery. He later went to a VA hospital in Salt Lake City for rehabilitation. The 15-year Army veteran was left with permanent brain damage.

Tallent was sent to the Treasure State Correctional Training Center, but his sentence was revoked six months after graduating from the boot camp. Citing Tallent’s arrest for damage to a government vehicle, MIP and resisting arrest, and for testing positive for alcohol and opiates, Judge Ted Lympus re-sentenced Tallent in February 2005 to three years with the Department of Corrections followed by a five-year prison sentence.

Three years later, Judge Stewart Stadler revoked Tallent’s sentence again. According to a probation office report, Tallent had been arrested for DUI in Kalispell, with a 0.105 blood alcohol level, and for assault with bodily injury in Great Falls. Stadler re-sentenced Tallent to five years with the Department of Corrections, all suspended.

Then, on Jan. 9 this year, Judge Heidi Ulbricht revoked Tallent’s sentence for the third time. A probation officer reported that Tallent had never paid any restitution and had tested positive for alcohol in June 2012, with a 0.20 blood-alcohol level.

On June 5, Ulbricht sentenced Tallent to five years with the Department of Corrections, all suspended, and ordered him to make $200 per month payments on his restitution, fines and fees until they are paid in full.

Meanwhile, Brad Winters, who was 19 at the time of the Matthews attack, has had his sentence for felony criminal endangerment revoked three time — most recently in December 2013. Winters, 29, faces a disposition hearing in July.