Admitted shooter released from jail pending sentencing
A judge has agreed to release a man awaiting sentencing for shooting two people outside a Marion bar in June and distributing dangerous drugs on Aug. 19.
Leif Logan Lee, 27, posted $25,000 bond and was expected to be released Thursday night. Flathead District Judge Amy Eddy told Lee that he would have to enroll in a drug treatment program in Flathead or Lincoln counties within 24 hours of his release.
Lee said he will live in his hometown of Eureka and will immediately go to work installing drywall in the Flathead Valley.
Prosecutors and Lee’s attorneys recommended in a Nov. 21 plea agreement that Lee receive a 10-year sentence with five years suspended, with two additional consecutive five-year suspended sentences for both the shooting and the drug case. Judge Eddy is not required to follow the agreement at a Jan. 21 sentencing.
Lee’s proceedings were previously heard by Flathead District Judge Kitty Curtis, who stressed that Lee must enter an appropriate treatment program if he was going to be released. Judge Eddy reiterated Curtis’ concerns on Wednesday, reminding Lee that drug or alcohol consumption would land him back in jail.
Drugs played a part in at least one of Lee’s earlier crimes. According to court documents on Aug. 19 Lee sold $700 worth of meth to a confidential informant.
Lee said the meth was not at his home on Doble Drive and left on an all-terrain vehicle to retrieve it. Lee returned 20 minutes later, weighed the drugs and gave them to the informant. Lee noted that the informant now owed $900.
The drugs were handed over to police and tested positive for methamphetamine.
On Sept. 7, Lee contacted the informant asking for the $900 he was owed. The pair met in Kalispell, exchanged money and arranged for another sale of 1.5 ounces of methamphetamine later that day. At this point, officers with the Northwest Drug Task Force arrested Lee and searched his home.
Officers confiscated the $900 in Lee’s pocket, an iPhone, two additional ounces of methamphetamine, $1,000 in additional cash, a digital scale and several firearms.
The arrest came three days after Lee pleaded guilty to two amended counts of criminal endangerment for shooting two people outside Rail Line Tavern in Marion on June 14.
Witnesses told police that Lee had been arguing with a woman and that when someone tried to intervene, he pulled a gun and shot the person twice in the hand and arm. One of the bullets also struck the woman, who was transported to the hospital with serious injuries.
Lee fled on a motorcycle.
Reporter Megan Strickland can be reached at 758-4459 or mstrickland@dailyinterlake.com.