News you can use

Keto going back to court on assault charge

A Havre man sentenced to six years probation and ordered to pay more than $40,000 in restitution for assaulting another Havre man requiring reconstructive surgery will be back in court in Havre to face accusations he has violated his probation.

Kohl Jolen Keto, born in 1993, is scheduled to make an initial appearance on the charges Feb. 21. He was in the Hill County jail this morning on $15,000 bond.

In a plea agreement, Keto pleaded guilty to a felony count of aggravated assault.

In December, District Judge Dan Boucher, citing the fact that the charge was Keto’s first felony offense and his youth, imposed a six-year deferred imposition of sentence, a list of conditions of release, and ordered Keto to pay more than $42,000 in restitution and fees.

Under a deferred imposition of sentence, Keto could request the felony be struck from his record if he does not violate conditions of his release for the six-year probationary period.

Keto was arrested in Butte Feb. 7, where he had been attending an addiction treatment program, on a charge of violating conditions of his probation including leaving the treatment program against the advice of the counselors there.

The petition to revoke his deferred imposition says he also missed appointments with his probation officer, provided diluted urine samples for drug and alcohol testing, and drank alcohol or used methamphetamine, opiates or marijuana seven times between Dec. 1 and Jan. 2.

Keto was charged after a man called Havre police July 16, 2012, and said Keto had assaulted him at a house party the night before.

The victim said he was en route to Great Falls to see a plastic surgeon when he called the police. Medical personnel had looked at his injuries in the emergency room at Northern Montana Hospital after the assault, but due to the severity of his injuries he needed to be examined by a plastic surgeon.

He suffered a fractured eye socket, a broken cheekbone, three fractures to his nose, a broken sinus cavity and a cracked rib as a result of the assault.

The victim said Keto approached him at the party the night before and said he was going to have to fight him because the victim had been talking to the girlfriend of the person who was throwing the party.

He said he told Keto he was not going to fight, and Keto came back later and said the fight was off.

Keto later came back and said it was back on, the victim said, and struck him and knocked him to the ground. The victim said he could not remember how many times Keto had struck him, but witnesses said he hit the victim several times, with one saying Keto knocked the victim to the ground then was on top of him, continuing to hit him.

 

Reader Comments(0)

 
 
Rendered 03/23/2024 20:35