More charges filed against kidnap suspect

The Daily Inter Lake

Two more charges have been filed against Joseph Aceto, who was to go to trial this month on two charges of attempted homicide and one of aggravated kidnapping.

This week, Aceto also was charged with two counts of assault with a weapon. That will delay his trial until summer so his attorneys have time to prepare his defense on the new charges.

A jury convicted Aceto in January 2002 of attempting to kill his former girlfriend and her boyfriend by shooting at them. Testimony at his trial proved that after firing the shots at Rocky Hoerner and Eileen Holmquist in Columbia Falls in May 2000, Aceto abducted Holmquist at gunpoint. He took her into the woods of the North Fork, where he later released her.

District Judge Ted Lympus sentenced Aceto to 210 years in prison.

Aceto's conviction was overturned by the Montana Supreme Court in November 2004. The court ruled that Aceto's rights were violated during the trial, during which he acted as his own attorney. While questioning Holmquist, Aceto became angry and argued with Lympus, finally swearing and throwing a file toward Lympus and Holmquist.

The Supreme Court ruled that Lympus should have warned Aceto before he had him removed from the courtroom. Aceto watched the rest of his trial on closed-circuit television from his jail cell.

After the trial, Holmquist killed herself.

County Attorney Ed Corrigan added the two felony assault charges against Aceto.

Attorneys Ed Falla and Glen Neier will represent Aceto.