Man charged with stealing ammunition, dozens of guns
A Martin City man is behind bars for allegedly violating probation by stealing two dozen guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition from a residence in Kila earlier this month.
Tucker Mathis, 24, is charged with felony theft and also faces revocation of probation for a previous criminal endangerment charge.
According to court documents, a snow-plow driver found a dirt bike in the a driveway off Dower Draw in Kila on Dec. 19. A Flathead County Sheriff’s deputy found that a residence and two outbuildings looked as if they had been ransacked.
The homeowner was out of town at the time of the burglary, but returned and found that reloading equipment, thousands of rounds of ammunition and 24 guns had been stolen.
Mathis was identified as a suspect and allegedly confessed on Dec. 23 to stealing between 19 and 21 guns, the ammunition and reloading equipment. It allegedly took Mathis three separate trips to complete the burglary.
Mathis remains in the Flathead County Detention Center. He also has been charged with driving without a license and driving without insurance, both misdemeanors.
According to court documents, Mathis has had multiple run-ins with the law.
Mathis was the subject of an intervention by his probation officer in August 2014 after he allegedly admitted to daily using methamphetamine and marijuana.
The intervention came a year after Mathis was released from the Montana Department of Corrections on April 3, 2013. At the time of release, Mathis had spent one year of a five-year sentence to the Montana Department of Corrections in pre-release and addictions programs. It was the second time Mathis had been sentenced in the case.
He had originally been sentenced to a 30-month deferred sentence for felony criminal mischief but was sent to jail after violating probation.
“Defendant’s adjustment to supervision can be best described as poor,” Probation Officer Randy Block wrote in a report after the intervention for Mathis in 2013. Mathis then was required to report to probation and parole daily. He successfully completed the three-year commitment to the Department of Corrections and started an additional two-year suspended part of the sentence on March 14.
Mathis then allegedly absconded from probation and called his probation officer in April 2015 to report that he was living in Alaska without permission.
In addition to the felony conviction, Mathis was previously convicted of misdemeanor negligent endangerment as part of a plea agreement where a harsher felony negligent endangerment charge was dropped.
In that case Mathis received a six-month suspended jail sentence for drunkenly throwing lit artillery shells at officers and patrol cars near the Dam Town Tavern in Hungry Horse on July 5, 2009.
Mathis is set to be arraigned on Jan. 21.
Reporter Megan Strickland can be reached at 758-4459 or mstrickland@dailyinterlake.com.