Martin City man pleads out in house shooting case

A Martin City man was sentenced to 10 years in prison earlier this month in a case where he shot up a Hungry Horse home.

Bryan McCully, 23, pleaded no contest Oct. 11 in Flathead County District Court to the original charge of attempted deliberate homicide in connection with an incident on Sept. 8 of 2017 in which he fired 28 rounds from an assault-style rifle into a Hungry Horse home. McCully was apparently trying to kill the home’s occupants, Daniel and Reg Walker. According to court documents, McCully and his friends were at the same bar as Daniel Walker. Cross and Daniel Walker apparently had an earlier dispute. The bartender threw out McCully, Gravelin and Cross, thinking a fight would break out.

About an hour later, McCully went to Walker’s house and riddled it with bullets.

Daniel Walker claimed that some of the bullets had flown past his head.

As part of a plea deal, the attempted homicide charge was reduced to the two counts of assault with a weapon. District Court Judge Dan Wilson sentenced McCully to two consecutive terms of 15 years in Montana State Prison, with 10 years suspended on each count and 288 days credited for time served in the Flathead County Detention Center.

Assault with a weapon carries a minimum sentence of 10 years in Montana, but Wilson noted there were aggravating circumstances in the case.

“The bullets the defendant fired into the residence nearly struck both victims. But for the fortuitous pathway or trajectory of the bullets that the defendant fired at the victims’ residence, the defendant would have been prosecuted, and likely found guilty, of homicide for killing one or both victims,” Wilson said.