Robber sentenced to eight years

A Bigfork woman is headed to prison for eight years — followed by 22 years of probation — after robbing one store in 2012 then trying to rob another in 2013.

Julie Ann DeShazer, 47, tried to leave the Kalispell Walgreens on Oct. 1, 2012, with a shopping cart full of items she had not paid for, then drove into the store manager who confronted her before driving away.

In July 2013, DeShazer tried to rob the Northwest Montana Veterans Food Pantry in Evergreen, claiming she had a gun and ordering an employee to empty the register. She fled without obtaining any money and was apprehended after trying to escape through a nearby department store.

Those crimes netted her a pair of felony robbery convictions, for which she received the eight-year prison sentence and 12 years of probation.

The other 10 years came because DeShazer’s new convictions constituted a violation of a 10-year suspended sentence she received for a bail jumping conviction in 1997.

District Judge Robert Allison handed down the sentences during a Thursday hearing in Flathead District Court.