Jury convicts C-Falls man for 2013 Evergreen crash

A jury convicted a 29-year-old Columbia Falls man on three of five felony counts stemming from a Jan. 19, 2013, crash in Evergreen that seriously injured a passenger in the second vehicle.

Sean West was charged with two counts of negligent endangerment, two counts of criminal endangerment and one count of failure to remain at the scene of an accident. He faced up to 10 years for each count.

A jury in Flathead Count District Court convicted West on Feb. 12 of one count negligent endangerment and one count criminal endangerment and of fleeing the scene of the accident. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for May 16.

According to a Montana Highway Patrol investigation and eyewitnesses, West’s sport-utility vehicle was traveling northbound on U.S. 2 at a high rate of speed when it ran a red light at East Reserve Drive and T-boned another vehicle.

A man sitting in the back seat of the second vehicle was ejected and flew about 63 feet. He was transported to Kalispell Regional Medical Center after sustaining several injuries, including a lacerated liver.

An eyewitness reported seeing West start to run away. She said she told him to stop, but he replied, “I can’t do this.” West later contacted a sheriff’s dispatcher to say where he was and to leave a contact number.

When the investigating MHP trooper talked to West, he allegedly admitted he had drank six to eight beers, ran the red light, got scared and ran away. A blood sample showed West’s blood-alcohol content was 0.143.

West’s attorney, Lane Bennett, filed a motion on March 14 requesting a new trial and acquittal. Bennett claimed insufficient evidence was presented to convict West and that West’s due process rights were violated when the state failed to preserve evidence.

Bennett claimed in a subsequent motion that West never confessed to the MHP trooper, and that West had no recollection of the incident and was simply “parroting” what the trooper said to him.

Bennett also claimed that a surveillance-video recording at the Cattlemen’s Bar in Kalispell would have shown that West was not the driver, and Bennett named the man who he claims was driving. But the trooper failed to obtain the video recording, Bennett claimed.

West wrote two letters to the court in hopes of mitigating his sentence. On March 7, he said he had been talking to the “DEA” about “helping them get a lot of drugs off the streets.” He said he was willing to help them if the court would bring back an earlier plea bargain.

Eleven days later, West wrote to Flathead County District Court Judge Robert Allison saying he had changed his life. He said he had a good job, was attending AA meetings, went to church and had worn a SCRAM bracelet for 200 days without violating. He also promised to pay $15,000 a year in restitution if necessary for the incident.

West’s past criminal history includes several misdemeanor charges, including possession of drug paraphernalia, two MIPs and two no insurance charges.