Man pleads guilty to selling cocaine

A Kalispell man has pleaded guilty to selling cocaine.

Joshua Boultinghouse, 32, entered the plea to felony criminal distribution of dangerous drugs during a Feb. 6 hearing in Flathead County District Court.

An additional felony charge of drug distribution and a count of felony accountability to criminal possession with intent to distribute were dismissed.

Boultinghouse sold nine grams of cocaine to a man in May 2011 for $700, saying the drugs belonged to 40-year-old John Busch of Eaton, Wash., and that Busch would soon be going back to Seattle to pick up ecstasy and more cocaine.

Busch was later apprehended as he got off a train in Whitefish. He had 14 grams of cocaine and 20 ecstasy pills.

Boultinghouse faces between one year and life in prison as well as a fine of up to $50,000 when he is sentenced April 10.

Busch previously pleaded guilty to felony criminal possession with intent to distribute and was sentenced to five years in jail and three years of probation for that conviction plus previous convictions for felony criminal endangerment and misdemeanor DUI.