Man guilty of rape, stalking

A Polson man who was charged with trying to hire someone to kill his former girlfriend so she couldn’t testify against him in a rape trial has entered a plea agreement that calls for a 50-year prison sentence.

Dennis Hobbs, 57, pleaded guilty Wednesday to two counts of sexual intercourse without consent, stalking and tampering with witnesses. 

Under the plea, Lake County prosecutors agreed to dismiss charges of solicitation of deliberate homicide and assault with a weapon. 

Both the prosecution and defense agreed to recommend Hobbs be sentenced to 50 years in prison, with no time suspended, on each rape charge; five years for stalking and 10 years for tampering with witnesses. The sentences are to run concurrently. District Judge James Manley ordered a presentence investigation and a psycho-sexual evaluation and scheduled Hobbs’ sentencing for Aug. 27.

Hobbs was charged in May with solicitation of deliberate homicide, stalking, and tampering with witnesses and informants. 

He was charged last year with two counts of sexual intercourse without consent and assault with a weapon after his ex-girlfriend reported Hobbs had raped her.

Prosecutors alleged that after Hobbs’ father posted his $100,000 bond in the August 2013 rape case, Hobbs drove by his ex-girlfriend’s residence and her place of work, sent her flowers, made hang-up phone calls and several times asked the nephew of the then-Ronan police chief if he could find someone to kill her.

The chief’s nephew, Wayne Kibler, said Hobbs told him that payment for the killing would be a detailed map of an isolated residence filled with guns, coins and other expensive items that the killer would be able to steal, charging documents said.

Hobbs has an extensive criminal record, mostly in Idaho, that includes burglary, grand theft, aggravated assault, kidnapping and domestic battery, court records said.

The plea agreement acknowledges that Hobbs may first have to go to Idaho to serve any sentence imposed upon him because his parole was revoked.

Hobbs must complete two phases of the state sexual offender treatment program in prison before he is eligible for parole. If he is ever released from prison, Hobbs is to have “absolutely no contact” with the victim, the agreement states.