'I didn't go there to kill anybody'

Joseph Aceto, facing attempted murder and kidnapping charges, testifies in his own defense

After six years, Joseph Aceto told his story.

Aceto described the events that prompted charges of attempted homicide and aggravated kidnapping against him in 2000. He first stood trial in 2002 but did not testify.

On Wednesday, Aceto said nothing would have prevented him from killing his ex-girlfriend, Eileen Holmquist, and her boyfriend, Rocky Hoerner, if that had been his desire.

"I didn't go there to kill anybody," Aceto said.

He said he met Holmquist in 2000, when they both worked at Rustic Rails in Columbia Falls - a furniture-making business. Their relationship was on and off - and brief - ending in mid-April. Holmquist moved out of the Kalispell house where Aceto lived. After that, her cousin stopped by, issuing a threat for Aceto to stay away from Holmquist. As a result, Aceto said he started more regularly carrying a .380-caliber semi-automatic gun.

On May 22, 2000, Aceto was "drinking a lot of beer" at the Blue Moon bar and visiting with another ex-boyfriend of Holmquist's. The man told Aceto that Holmquist was living with a man named Rocky who had an art studio on the main street in Columbia Falls. Aceto estimated he had had from eight to 10 beers before he left the bar.

He said he was on his way to a friend's house when he passed the studio and got an unexpected glimpse of Holmquist illuminated in a window.

"I sort of did a double-take because there was Eileen," he said.

He went on to his friend's house, where he spent about 30 minutes. His thoughts were on Holmquist.

"I was thinking about Eileen," he said, and "what I considered disrespect" from her.

He drove at about midnight to the corner of the block where Holmquist and Hoerner were working in the studio.

"I started having second thoughts," he said. "I could come back there tomorrow. I was sitting there, spitting out the window," for maybe a minute.

"The first thing I seen is a guy coming down the street and heard some yelling … I seen that Eileen was with him. I'd never seen him before."

The man, Hoerner, was yelling, "Hey, hey, what the F you doing down here. What's up man, what's up?"

Aceto said Hoerner was "throwing his hands up" as he approached.

It incensed Aceto.

"The closer he got, the easier it was to make my decision," he said. He picked up the gun between the seats of his car. It was loaded. He took off the safety and put the gun in his belt under his shirt.

"The adrenaline started running," Aceto said. "I said, all right, let's do it then. He crossed a Rubicon. We both did."

Aceto got out of his car and pulled the gun. Hoerner "started to pivot so he could run."

"I just went after him. I started running behind him," Aceto said.

He didn't care whether what he was doing was illegal.

"I wanted to get ahold of him. I was after him. I wanted to put the pistol on him and say, 'What's up now?'

"I wanted to scare him. I wanted to humiliate him."

But he didn't want to kill him, Aceto said.

Holmquist and then Hoerner fled into the art gallery with Aceto from 10 to 12 feet behind.

"I lifted up the pistol and I shot in the wall towards the ground. I'm telling you, I wanted to get ahold of this guy."

Aceto said he saw Hoerner pass a window inside the shop.

"That's when I fired the second shot," he said. "I was just so pissed off."

Inside the shop, Aceto ignored Hoerner and followed Holmquist who had gone through a back door. It wouldn't open for him because Holmquist had a grip on the doorknob from the other side.

"I said, 'Eileen, open the F'ing door. Open it up or I'm going to shoot it open."

He fired two shots into the door.

"She yelled, 'Joe, don't shoot me.' I said, 'I'm not going to shoot you.' I said, 'Why are you F'ing with me?'"

Holmquist told Aceto that police were coming.

"I said, let's get out of here."

She left with him voluntarily, he said.

He put his gun back under his shirt so no one on the street would see it. He hustled Holmquist out to his car and told her drive.

"She always drove when she was with me," he said.

They drove up the North Fork Road, with Columbia Falls policeman Rich Pederson in pursuit. He had backed off by the time Aceto and Holmquist reached the Big Creek Education Center.

Left over from his preparation for the "end times, Y2K stuff," Aceto had a backpack full of survival gear in his trunk. They took that.

"I said, 'Let's go this way' and into the dark we went," he said.

"I really haven't ever spent any time in the woods," though that's been a fantasy of his, Aceto said. Among his gear was a compass he didn't know how to use.

The pair stumbled among the trees and stopped beneath a pine, where Aceto slept. In the morning, Holmquist awakened him, saying "There's some soldiers over there."

The soldiers were members of the sheriff's SWAT team and they were looking for Aceto and Holmquist, who lay still until they passed, Aceto said.

The former couple talked throughout the day.

"We sort of like blamed each other for the events that happened" between them, Aceto said. "We talked about the situation we were in. Then we talked about how are we going to get out of it now."

They walked, lost, until well after dark.

They reached an agreement the next day that Holmquist would go to a road for help and Aceto would remain in the woods.

"She didn't want to go. She was concerned with bears," Aceto said.

He released her because "I knew it was in my best interests that she come out [and be safe]," he said. By then the couple was arguing again, he said.

When they found the road, Aceto said he would walk in the trees near her, "keep an eye on her for safety reasons."

When Holmquist was rescued, she could "sort of clear up the situation and let people know it wasn't as bad as they were reporting on the radio."

Sheriff's detective Bruce Parish picked up Holmquist from the road.

Back in the woods, Aceto turned on a transistor radio and heard Sheriff Jim Dupont on KOFI radio, appealing for Aceto to surrender and promising that he wouldn't be hurt.

Finally he did, offering himself to sheriff's deputy Lance Norman after two other officers passed him, Aceto said.

County Attorney Ed Corrigan asked Aceto about the differences in Aceto's rendition of the events and Holmquist's. She said she was terrified by Aceto and begged for her life after he abducted her.

Although Aceto can refute what Holmquist said happened, there is no rebuttal to what Aceto says happened with her. Holmquist killed herself four years ago.

Aceto was convicted by a jury in 2002 of attempted homicide and kidnapping. He was sentenced to 210 years in prison. His conviction was overturned by the Supreme Court, and the case was sent to Flathead County for a retrial.

Today, the jury will hear instructions from District Judge Kitty Curtis and closing statements from Corrigan and defense attorney Glen Neier.

Then the jury will begin to decide whether or not they believe Aceto.