Man sentenced for aiding escape

BUTTE — A Deer Lodge man who pleaded guilty to tampering with evidence in a Butte homicide case has been sentenced to five years with the Department of Corrections.

Juan Romero, 29, was sentenced Thursday to 10 years with five suspended with a recommendation that he be placed in the prison’s boot camp.

Prosecutors say Romero drove the getaway car after Mark Partelow was shot in the head and killed. Jeffery Lackman of Whitehall is charged with deliberate homicide in Partelow’s death. He has pleaded not guilty.

Officers arrested Lackman and Romero near Roundup two days after the August 2013 shooting.

The suspected murder weapon was found near Elk Park wrapped in a towel in a plastic shopping bag.