Sentence deferred for domestic assailant

A Kalispell man alleged to have broken his wife’s ribs in a vicious assault that also left their youngest child severely bruised has been given a three-year deferred sentence.

Gerald Jackson, 61, originally was charged with felony counts of aggravated assault and assault on a minor, but eventually pleaded guilty by way of Alford to felony criminal endangerment.

By entering an Alford plea, Jackson was able to take advantage of conviction on the reduced charge while maintaining his innocence.

A court document alleged Jackson threw his wife over the rail of their futon, possibly causing her to lose consciousness, that he put her into a choke hold, and that he shut a door twice on her head while she was lying in a doorway.

It also alleged Jackson spanked the child hard enough to leave bruising from the center of the child’s back down to the middle of his thigh, with a “significant handprint bruise” on his right thigh.

District Judge Ted Lympus, who handed down the deferred sentence Thursday, also ordered Jackson to pay a $200 public defender fee.