Man on trial for attack on wife

A jury trial began Monday for a Kalispell man accused of trying to smother his estranged wife in her bed.

A jury trial began Monday for a Kalispell man accused of trying to smother his estranged wife in her bed.

Christopher Lee, 29, is charged with aggravated burglary and intimidation.

The jury heard from Deputy County Attorney Dan Guzynski and defense attorney Ed Falla during opening statements Monday.

"He went to that house to traumatize her," Guzynski said of Lee. The woman had filed for divorce and had an order of protection against Lee.

She awakened at about 3 a.m. on Feb. 17 to find Lee's "hands over her mouth and nose and he was suffocating her… She begged and pleaded for her life" for 40 minutes, Guzynski said.

"The defendant told her he would not be a divorced individual."

The jury won't have to rely just on the woman's testimony, Guzynski said. Lee's fingerprints were found on a juice bottle in the house, although he no longer lived there. Footprints in the snow matched Lee's. And Lee told coworkers at The Daily Inter Lake shortly afterward that he'd had a fight with his wife and police would probably be looking for him.

Falla, on the other hand, said Lee's wife's story "makes no sense whatsoever. It could not have happened the way she said it happened."

He said that Lee called his wife at about 9 p.m. the prior night in a heated conversation about child visitation. He worked on his computer until about 2 a.m. and then prepared to go to work. He discovered the battery was dead on his vehicle and eventually flagged down someone to jump-start his truck before going to work, where he was arrested, originally for partner assault.

He's been in jail since the felony charges were filed in February.

If convicted, Lee faces up to 40 years in prison for aggravated burglary and up to 10 years for intimidation.

The trial, before District Judge Kitty Curtis, is expected to conclude today.