True Crime and News of the Weird from around the Globe

Vet Gets 80 Years in Fatal Fight Over Whether Army or Marines are Better

By HardBoiledNews Staff

BILLINGS, Montana — A 69-year-old Army vet was resentenced to 80 years in prison following his second conviction in a brutal stabbing during a drunken argument over whether the Army or the Marine Corps are better.

William Earl Cunningham was first convicted of deliberate homicide in Montana in 2015 in the death of 40-year-old Nathan Horn, the year before.

The stabbing came after two nights of drunken arguments over which military branch was superior. Horn had claimed at the time to have served in the Marines, although he never did.

Ultimately Cunningham blew his top and repeatedly slashed Horn across his neck and face, killing him, authorities had said. Prosecutors said Cunningham had a long history of drunkenyl assaulting people with a knife. 

The Montana Supreme Court overturned Cunningham’s conviction and 80-year sentence in 2018, saying he was denied the chance to question the professional history and credibility of a state witness and not allowed to fully testify about why he was afraid of Horn. He testified he killed Horn in self-defense.

Cunningham didn’t testify at his retrial last summer.

Cunningham told a pre-sentence investigator that Horn’s death was an accident and that he believed he had served enough prison time.

Cunningham’s attorney asked for a 40-year sentence with 20 years suspended, which would have made Cunningham immediately eligible for parole. Prosecutors again sought the 80-year sentence.

Woman Charged With Forcing Ex to Have Sex at Machete-Point

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Samantha Mears used the sharp end of a machete to have her way with her ex

GREAT  FALLS, Montana — A machete-wielding woman broke into her ex-boyfriend’s house and forced him to have sex with her before peeing on his bed, police said.

Samantha Ray Mears, 19, had forced her way into her ex’s home Friday evening and lay in wait for him with the machete. When he came home, she hopped out from behind the bedroom door, brandishing the weapon, police said.

She then held the blade to his neck and ordered him to undress and get onto the bed, the Grand Falls Tribune reported. She then took off her pants and climbed on top of him. Mears held the machete in her hands the whole time they had sex.

Afterwards, the man tried to push Mears off him, prompting her to bite his arm and continue trying to have sex with him.  In a fit of rage, she tore a piece of the trim off the wall and then urinated on his bed, cops said.

The man’s sister soon came home, but her text messaged her to leave. He then pretended to call a friend, but dialed 911 instead to call for help.

Responding officers noted that Mears appeared to suffering from some form of mental illness. She was charged with aggravated burglary, assault with a weapon, unlawful restraint, partner family member assault and two counts of criminal mischief.

In April, she was charged with strangling the same boyfriend during a fight. The pair have been involved with each other for seven years.

Pals Inadvertently Help Man Burglarize Home After He Asked for Help Moving

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Patrick Joseph Adams wasn’t the best of friends to his pals

GREAT FALLS, Montana — With friends like this, who needs enemies.

A Montana man duped his pals into burglarizing a home by asking them to help him move out, police said.

Patrick Joseph Adams Jr., 36, had asked one friend to rent a U-Haul truck and another to help load about $40,000 worth of stuff out of the home in July, the Great Falls Tribune reported.

But one friend grew suspicious when he noticed military medals on the wall and couldn’t remember his buddy ever mentioning having served in the armed forces. He also wondered why

Adams’ girlfriend didn’t seem to know her way around the house. He then left.

Later that day, when the homeowner returned and found his house ransacked, he called police. Neighbors told cops about seeing a U-Haul parked in front of the house, which led detectives to the man who rented the truck. Identified in court documents simply as RP, the man said he owed Adams a favor, so agreed to rent the truck as Adams didn’t have a driver’s license.

Adams was charged with burglary and criminal mischief and faces up to 30-years in prison. Bail was set at $50,000.  Adams had been convicted in 2016 of carrying a concealed weapon and in 2010 of criminal possession of dangerous drugs. He was also convicted of forgery in a separate case that year.

Predator Crowdfunded Trip to Montana to Sleep With Underage Girl: Cops

By HardBoiledNews Staff

MISSOULA, Montana — A twisted sicko allegedly launched a crowdfunding campaign to finance his trip from Indiana to Montana to have sex with a 14-year-old girl, police said.

Police in Missoula say the girl’s family caught wind of 29-year-old William Eugene White, Jr., after he had made the trip last week and showed up at the family’s door.

They said they learned that White had launched a crowdfunding campaign to come there to collect his “fiancee,” but they told him to leave, the Missoulian reported.

On Monday, the girl went missing and the family called police. She was found the next day with White at a homeless shelter where they had spent the night.

When cops questioned White, he acknowledged that he knew how young the girl was. The age of consent in Montana is 16.

White was charged with felony sexual abuse of children and ordered held on $25,000 bail.

 

Man Who Caused Montana Testicle Fest Bus Crash Hit With Homicide Charges

By HardBoiledNews Staff

James William Bayford had been thrown out of the testicle fest and was being driven home

MISSOULA, Montana — A  slobbering drunk Montana man who tried to grab the wheel of a shuttle taking people back from a Testicle Festival, causing it to flip and kill two passengers, has been charged with criminally negligent homicide.

James William Bayford, 42, of Missoula had been thrown out of the festival — where contestants compete to see who can eat the most bull testicles — and became upset while being driven back to town in the shuttle.

Cops say he then grabbed the wheel from the driver, causing him to lose control and roll over onto the median. Passengers Vannessa Anderson, 33, and Donny Barlow, 36, were thrown from the vehicle and were killed, the Missoulian reported.

Cops say Bayford had a blood alcohol level of .209 even though he had been barred from drinking as part of his probation from a separate case where he pleaded guilty just two weeks earlier to assaulting two young nephews.

Bayford has been charged with two counts of criminally negligent homicide and six counts of criminal endangerment. He was held on $200,000 bond.

Man Busted an Astonishing 23 Times for Drunk Driving

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Clinton Sproles likes his drink a bit too much

BUTTE, Montana — Get this man to A.A.

A man arrested in Montana for driving drunk admitted to cops that it was the 23rd time he;d been busted for driving under the influence.

Clinton Todd Sproles, 54, was picked up on suspicion of drunk driving late Saturday in Butte and was charged with DUI.

Sproles told cops he had been arrested for the same charge 22 times previously in Montana and other states.

“It doesn’t look like he’s getting any kind of a message to stop his behavior, that’s the concerning part,” Butte County Sheriff Ed Lester told KTVQ-TV. “Anytime you’re racking up DUIs, that’s an amazing pace for anybody to set, so it’s deeply concerning that he’d be out driving with potentially 22 DUIs.”

Police say they aren’t sure if Sproles’ account of his criminal history is entirely accurate, but court officials had a record in 2008 of him being arrested 18 times in multiple for DUI dating back to the 1970s.

In 2006, he was declared a persistent felony offender. In 2008, a judge in Bozeman sentenced Sproles to 20 years in prison after he crashed into a parked car with a blood alcohol level of 0.179. But he ended up on parole after entering an alcohol treatment program.

Court records show Sproles has alcohol-related arrests in Oklahoma, Florida, Colorado and Georgia.

 

Woman Angry Over 1-Night Stand Tries to Run Over Man, Crashes Into House

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Trudy Kay Vonbergen would not take no for an answer

HELENA, Montana — Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

Montana police say a Helena woman tried to run over a man with whom she had had a one night stand, then crashed her truck into his house, narrowly missing his roommate.

Trudy Kay Vonbergen, 55, is accused of driving to the man’s house early Friday morning and getting into an argument with him after finding another woman there, according to the Helena Independent Record.

The man told cops that he and Vonbergen had had a “one night stand” about two months earlier

When he asked her to leave, she began driving in circles in the driveway in her Dodge Dakota and started chasing the man, screaming, “I’ll f***ing kill you!,” the police report said.

Then she crashed into the house, coming within five feet of the man’s roommate who had been sitting on the porch.

Investigators say they suspect Vonbergen was drunk as she reeked of booze and had bloodshot, glassy eyes. She refused to do any field sobriety testing or give a breath or blood  sample.

She was charged with  driving under the influence and criminal mischief. In 2015, Vonbergen was charged with stealing $2,000 from a woman with dementia that she had been caring for. She pleaded not guilty.

U.S. Border Ban Extended to Fire Breathing Dragons

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Robo Dragon didn’t pass muster with U.S. border agents

BILLINGS, Montana — President Trump must have been watching “Game of Thrones,” when he drew up the latest draft of his travel ban.

Customs agents blocked a 30-foot-tall, fire breathing robot dragon from entering the U.S. to perform at a monster truck rally in Montana on Friday.

Organizers of the No Limits Monster Trucks show at the Rimrock Auto Arena in Billings blamed a paperwork foul up for why the car-eating Robo Dragon was barred from the country.

As it turns out, the owner of the dragon, Barry Parkin, lives in Canada and had last been in the U.S. in January for a show in Grand Islands, Nebraska.

But as he headed to Montana for Friday’s show, border agents wouldn’t let him pass.

“At 1:30 in the morning I get this text, which woke me right plum smooth up,” Ed Beckley, President and CEO of Checkered Flag Promotions, which was staging the event, told the Billings Gazette.

Robo Dragon during happier days

“I’m very sorry to have let the great fans of billings down,” Parkins said.  “This will be resolved shortly and I hope the underprivileged boys and girls group that missed me stopping by to display Robo Dragon will let me make it up to them in the near future.”

Beckley said the show went on as planned as the rest of the monster trucks had gotten to the event just fine.

Montana Man Gets 11 Years in 2nd Failed Murder-for-Hire Plot Against Wife

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Shane Sichting got hit with another 11 years in prison

COLUMBIA, South Carolina — If at first you don’t succeed. …

A Montana man at the end of a 10 year sentence for a botched attempt to hire a hitman to kill his ex-wife, has been hit with another 11 years behind bars for trying to get a second killer to bump off the former spouse and the first gunman who turned him in.

Shane Douglas Sichting, 48, was convicted in 2007 of trying to hire an employee at his auto body shop to kill his wife from whom he was getting divorced and was fighting over custody of their kids.

The plan came unraveled when the hired gun, Ronald Morales, turned out to be a grifter who walked off with $30,000 of Sichting’s money with no intention of harming his wife. When Morales was later busted for drunk driving in Oregon, he told authorities about the plot.

With six months to go before he was scheduled to be released from a federal prison in South Carolina into a halfway house, federal prosecutors say Sichting tried in July 2015 to hire a fellow inmate to kill his ex-wife and Morales.

“Sichting specifically wanted the murders to take place prior to his anticipated release to a halfway house in January 2016,” federal prosecutors said in a statement.

“It’s hard to believe that someone can hate you so much they want you dead,” Sichting’s ex-wife, Sheilagh told KTVQ-TV.

The inmate agreed to the plot but also informed the FBI who came up with a plan to have the inmate provide Sichting with a telephone number for a “hitman” that was willing to do the job.

The hitman was an FBI employee acting in an undercover capacity.

Through telephone calls and letters, Sichting provided information to the hitman about the intended victims, used coded language, like, referring to the targets as certain makes of cars.  He also negotiated the price to be paid for each of the murders.

Sichting pleaded guilty to the second hit attempt in September 2016 and now will serve an additional 135 months in jail.

 

 

White Supremacists Threaten Jews in Prominent Trump Backer’s Hometown

By HardBoiledNews Staff

An anti-Semitic site has called for harassment of Jews in Montana in defense of White Supremacist Richard Spencer

WHITEFISH, Montana — This is how pogroms begin.

An anti-Semitic website has called for “action” to be taken against Jewish residents of the Montana town of Whitefish, posting people’s personal information and urging a “troll storm” be unleashed against them.

The site says the call to action is in response to pressure being put on the mother of well-known White Supremacist figure Richard Spencer from members of a “vicious, evil race.”

The post cites an article in the Daily Mail that quotes said Sherry Spencer as saying “she is being forced to sell a building she owns in the small town because residents are rebelling against her son.”

The site posted phone numbers, mailing addresses, email addresses, and Twitter handles for the Whitefish residents it alleges are harassing Sherry Spencer. It also includes photographs of the targeted people with the Star of David and the word “Jude” superimposed on them. It also features pictures of some of their children.

While the post stresses that people should not resort to violence or make threats of violence, it urges people to bombard the people listed with emails, phone calls and messages.

Richard Spencer is president and director of the National Policy Institute, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has identified as a hate group. The institute is “dedicated to the heritage, identity, and future of people of European descent in the United States, and around the world.”

Spencer recently rose to broad public attention when video from a rally celebrating the election of Donald Trump showed Spencer leading the crowd in a chant of “Hail Trump” with many sticking their arms up in the Nazi salute.

The law center has described the author of the post as a “prolific internet troll.”

 

Stay Out of These Crazy Mountains

By HardBoiledNews Staff

Montana's Crazy Mountains, where hunter Mark Rollins fell to his death in September.

Montana’s Crazy Mountains, where hunter Mark Rollins fell to his death in September.

WILSALL, Montana — If you come across a place called the Crazy Mountains, maybe it’s best to stay away.

Montana police discovered the body of an elk hunter who had gone missing within the Crazy Mountains in central Montana just a mile from where he had last been seen about a week earlier.

Officials say 60-year-old Mark Rollins of Decorah, Iowa appeared to have fallen off a cliff to his death.

The Park County Sheriff’s office said Rollins had last been seen by a group of hunters on Sept. 20. But when they returned a week later and found his truck still parked where he left it, they grew concerned and called police.

When investigators contacted Rollins’ wife she said he had contacted police in Iowa after her husband had been late in returning home.

Rollins, who owned a restaurant in his hometown called Ede’s & the Angry Pickle, was described as an experienced backcountry hunter. According to the group of hunters who had spotted him, was well equipped and prepared for an extended stay. He was in good health, so authorities believe the fall that resulted in his death was an accident