Broken promise leads to 7-year prison term

A man who promised Flathead District Judge Robert Allison that he would have no problems staying off drugs during a 2013 sentencing for injuring a child is now headed to prison for violating terms of probation and committing another felony.

Allison said he was serious when he sentenced Dalton Cade Lauria, 23, Columbia Falls to a seven- year suspended term to the Montana State Prison in April 2013.

“My feeling then was, when I imposed the suspended sentence to Deer Lodge, that I hoped I would send you a message,” Allison said. He was unimpressed Lauria never followed through with terms of probation that required him to seek drug treatment.

“The fact that you come here now and I find that that never happened and, ‘Gee, judge, I’ve got a drug problem,’ doesn’t really give me a lot of motivation to impose a lesser sentence.”

Allison said the original suspended sentence was Lauria’s second chance to prove himself.

“I am certainly a believer in second chances,” Allison said. “But third, fourth and subsequent, a little less so.”

Lauria’s attorney Vicki Frazier argued for a seven-year sentence to the Montana Department of Corrections so he could access a long-term treatment program.

“It is a far better program,” Frazier said. “It is long-term and is geared toward addiction.”

Frazier pointed out that all of Lauria’s subsequent crimes have been property crimes.

Prosecutor Travis Ahner disagreed with Frazier, saying that his office had not pursued a persistent felony offender designation for Lauria that could have increased his sentence and did not charge him for crimes that occurred while Lauria was serving the suspended sentence that included felony forgery, theft, and possessing heroin.

Ahner showed the judge pictures of the 11-month-old child that was abused in the 2012 case.

“She was bruised from head to toe, judge,” Ahner said. “His conduct resulted in those injuries. That’s why Mr. Lauria initially got that prison sentence. He should not receive a break again. He has now earned that prison sentence. He’s got to be held accountable for those injuries and that little girl.”

Allison agreed and imposed a seven-year sentence to the Montana State Prison in the child abuse case.

An additional five-year suspended sentence was imposed for issuing a bad check. Lauria also will have to pay more than $4,000 in restitution to businesses to which he wrote bad checks earlier this year. He will also have to pay Kalispell Town Pump for a gasoline drive-off event. Additionally, he will serve a six-month suspended jail sentence for misdemeanor bail jumping.

Reporter Megan Strickland can be reached at 758-4459 or mstrickland@dailyinterlake.com.