Fugitive sentenced for Creston disturbance

By NICHOLAS LEDDEN/The Daily Inter Lake

A fugitive accused of causing a disturbance at a Creston home and then shooting at responding sheriff's deputies has been sentenced to 30 months in prison on federal weapons charges.

Brian Daniel Rendon, 37, also was ordered to forfeit any firearms and spend three years on supervised release after his term of incarceration during a hearing Thursday in U.S. District Court in Missoula.

Rendon and his co-defendant, 40-year-old Daniel Joseph Schwindt, each were indicted in May on one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm, one count of being a fugitive from justice in possession of a firearm, and one count of being an unlawful user of a controlled substance in possession of a firearm.

Rendon pleaded guilty in August to possession of a firearm by an unlawful drug user. Schwindt, who pleaded guilty in October to being a felon in possession of a firearm, is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 30.

Both men were wanted for parole violations out of Oregon when, early in the morning on Oct. 25, 2007, two women called the Flathead County Sheriff's Office from a trailer on Riverside Road in Creston to report that two men had beaten them up and then threatened to shoot at responding law-enforcement officers.

Schwindt had been convicted in Oregon of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle in 1992. Rendon had been convicted of homicide in 1990.

As deputies approached the home, shots were fired toward officers. Authorities set up a perimeter around the trailer and roadblocks, capturing both men after a short manhunt.

Rendon later told investigators he could see the red-and-blue flashing lights of approaching police cars as Schwindt fired out the window.

Deputies found two guns at the scene: a .22-caliber rifle and a Ruger .223-caliber semi-automatic rifle. Federal prosecutors allege the pair also had a second .22-caliber rifle.

Investigators found multiple bullet holes in the trailer and the kitchen windows had been shot out. Near the shot-out windows, deputies found four .223-caliber bullet casings.

The fugitives had been in Montana for about three weeks, prosecutors said.

In Flathead County, Schwindt was charged with criminal endangerment, assault on a peace officer and assault with a weapon, all felonies, and Rendon was charged with felony criminal endangerment and misdemeanor partner assault.

Reporter Nicholas Ledden can be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at nledden@dailyinterlake.com