Aceto found guilty

A Flathead County jury Thursday night convicted Joseph Aceto of attempted deliberate homicide and aggravated kidnapping for a 2000 shooting incident followed by the abduction of his former girlfriend Eileen Holmquist.

Aceto was convicted of the attempted murder of Rocky Hoerner, Holmquist's boyfriend, plus the kidnapping of Holmquist.

But the jury was unable to reach a verdict on a charge of attempted deliberate homicide related to Holmquist.

Flathead County Attorney Ed Corrigan said "We are very, very grateful to the jury and satisfied."

He said he would ask District Judge Kitty Curtis to sentence Aceto to life in prison.

"He is violent. In my opinion, he's a sociopath. I have no doubt he would have killed somebody again, probably very soon."

It was in May 2000 that Aceto shot at Eileen Holmquist, and her new beau Hoerner, at Hoerner's Columbia Falls art gallery. Neither was hurt and the .480-caliber gun never was recovered.

Aceto then abducted Holmquist and took her into the North Fork woods. He released her after 30 hours and surrendered to a Flathead County Sheriff's Office deputy.

Besides the charges themselves, the jury considered two factors that significantly impact the sentence Aceto will face.

Because the jury determined that Aceto used a weapon in the crimes, he faces an additional 10 years in prison.

The sentence for attempted deliberate homicide is the same as that for deliberate homicide; the law makes no distinction between a successful and unsuccessful attempt to kill someone. The penalty is life in prison or between 10 and 100 years.

The jury made a crucial determination in finding that Aceto did not release

Holmquist in a safe place.

Without that designation, someone convicted of aggravated kidnapping faces from two to 100 years in a prison. If a kidnapper releases the hostage "alive, in a safe place, and with no serious bodily injury," the possible penalty is reduced to two to 10 years.

Holmquist was released alive but killed herself two years later.

In 2002, Aceto was convicted of two counts of attempted murder and aggravated assault. District Judge Ted Lympus sentenced him to 210 years in prison.

The Montana Supreme Court overturned that conviction and ordered a new trial for Aceto.

Aceto represented himself at his first trial. A public defender took over for him after Aceto was banned from the courtroom for his behavior before Lympus.

This time, Aceto was represented by public defenders Glen Neier and Ed Falla.

In his closing statement to the jury, Neier summarized their case like this:

"He's committed several crimes … but it's not attempted murder.

"The ultimate issue, as we told you in the beginning, is not, is Joe Aceto guilty of something? [The question is] is he guilty as charged?"

Aceto testified at trial that he shot at Hoerner to scare him for "disrespecting" him. He wanted to humiliate him, he said. He didn't want to kill him.

Aceto fired a shot toward Hoerner that struck a building at about knee height.

"That was not a kill shot. That wasn't an attempt to kill somebody," Neier said.

A second shot shattered a window but didn't hurt Hoerner.

Neier said that Aceto had multiple opportunities to shoot and kill Hoerner if he had wanted to.

Likewise, there were ample occasions to kill Holmquist if he desired.

Although Aceto fired two shots into a door behind which Holmquist was hiding, he did it after warning Holmquist that if she didn't open the door, he would shoot it down, Neier said.

Aceto maintains that Holmquist went willingly with him from the gallery to the woods of the North Fork, where they stayed for 30 hours.

"They parted company on the North Fork Road, where she was picked up" by a sheriff's deputy involved in a manhunt for Holmquist and Aceto. "It might not have been the most convenient place, but it was a safe place … Eileen Holmquist was uninjured."

County Attorney Ed Corrigan disagreed, with passion.

"What a trauma this woman so obviously suffered," he said.

Earlier on Thursday, he called as a witness an emergency-room nurse who treated Holmquist after she was picked up on the North Fork Road. Pat Harmon said Holmquist "was disheveled. She was dirty. She had soiled her clothes. She appeared to have been terrified, brutalized."

Lost in the woods with a man who had put a gun to her head, Holmquist didn't know whether Hoerner were still alive or for how much longer she would be, Corrigan said.

"He wouldn't even let her get out and go the bathroom," Corrigan thundered at Aceto.

"That is a woman that has been kidnapped and is being terrorized and doing whatever she has to do to save her life."

He told the jury that when Aceto shot twice at Hoerner, it was no accident.

"Rocky Hoerner is either the unluckiest human being or the luckiest, at that point."

Because Aceto missed his target "shouldn't be the basis for letting him off the hook for doing that," Corrigan said of the shots.

"He was intending to kill Rocky Hoerner."

Corrigan said that when Hoerner dropped to the ground and rolled into his office to call 911, Aceto believed he had shot him.

"He thinks, 'Now, let's get Eileen,'" Corrigan said.

"There are two ways to measure a man's intentions ? by what he says [and] by what he does," Corrigan said.

Aceto fired into the door separating him from Holmquist without regard of the risk of hitting her.

"He didn't care that he put her life in jeopardy by doing that," Corrigan said.

The jury received the case at 12:30 p.m. Thursday. They deliberated until 9:30 p.m.