Man to be resentenced for shooting of woman

He was sentenced to 40 years in prison after killing a woman and then turning the shotgun on himself in an apparent suicide pact — now former Evergreen man Kenton Weimer is back in the Flathead County Detention Center.

Weimer, 22, is scheduled to be resentenced in District Court Jan. 12, 2011, after a Montana Supreme Court ruling that found his original sentence was not in line with a plea agreement signed with prosecutors.

In delivering the original sentence in January 2009, District Court Judge Ted Lympus ordered that Weimer serve 20 years in prison before becoming eligible for parole.

Weimer’s attorney, William Hooks of Helena, later argued that prosecutors’ arguments in favor of the parole restriction breached the terms of Weimer’s plea bargain, which called for a straight 40-year prison term.

Montana Supreme Court Justice William Leaphart, in an order signed Aug. 17, vacated the sentence and demanded a re-sentencing hearing.

Weimer shot and killed 18-year-old Evergreen woman Tarisia Caron with a 12-gauge shotgun on May 1, 2007. He then shot himself in the head with the same gun, inflicting serious injuries to his jaw and the lower portion of his face.

Investigators believed the two had formed a suicide pact.

In the hours before the 4 a.m. shootings at the Meadow Manor Mobile Home Park on Shady Lane, the two made phone calls to friends detailing their plans, according to court documents.

After shooting himself, a severely injured Weimer called 911 and used a system of tapping to answer a dispatcher’s questions and lead authorities to the scene.

He was flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle after emergency responders found him next to Caron’s body in the yard of the home he shared with his father.

Weimer was transported to the Flathead County Detention Center on Tuesday from Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge, where he had been serving his sentence.

Reporter Eric Schwartz may be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at eschwartz@dailyinterlake.com.