Plea deal reached in homicide case

The man accused of shooting and killing a 54-year-old man in Coram in February has pleaded guilty to the crime, taking a plea deal with the state to reduce the charges due to mitigating circumstances.

Martin J. Chandler was 19 on Feb. 14, when he allegedly shot and killed William Gene Melton after what police documents described as an argument about methamphetamine.

According to charging documents, Around 1:30 a.m. on Feb. 14, after receiving a report of shots fired in Coram, a police officer from Columbia Falls and a deputy from Flathead County responded to a home on Bear Street.

They found the body of William Gene Melton, 54, who was pronounced dead at the scene. The officers were provided a description of a suspect who had fled and his vehicle.

A short time later, a county deputy apprehended Martin Jay Chandler, 19, in the vicinity of the North Fork Road near Columbia Falls. Chandler is said to have most recently listed an address in Marion as his residence.

Chandler entered into plea deal with the state July 31 in which the state agreed to reduce the charges against Chandler from felony deliberate homicide and felony use of a firearm to mitigated deliberate homicide. An amended charging document states that Chandler caused the death of Melton, but “did so under the influence of extreme mental or emotional stress for which there is a reasonable explanation or excuse,” but the document did not elaborate. The plea deal recommends a sentence of 30 years in a state prison.

Judge Dan Wilson will preside over Chandler’s sentencing hearing in Flathead County District Court at 9 a.m. Oct. 16.