Shooting suspect jailed again week after plea deal

Less than a week after he agreed to plead guilty to shooting two people at a Marion bar, a Eureka man was back in the Flathead County Detention Center for allegedly distributing drugs.

Prosecutors allege in court documents that Leif Lee, 27, on Aug. 19 arranged to sell methamphetamine to a confidential informant working with law officers.

Police gave the informant $700 in cash to pay Lee for a past drug debt. After the informant paid the $700, the informant asked Lee for more methamphetamine.

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 Monday, Lee allegedly contacted the informant asking for the $900 drug payment. On Tuesday, the informant and Lee met in the parking lot of a retail store on U.S. 93 in Kalispell and exchanged $900.

Lee offered to sell the informant another 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 cash, a digital scale and several firearms.

Lee is charged with felony distribution of dangerous drugs. Prosecutors have asked that the $50,000 bond Lee posted on June 23 in the shooting case be revoked.

In a plea agreement, Lee pleaded guilty Sept. 4 to two amended counts of criminal endangerment for shooting two people outside a Marion bar on June 14. Sentencing for that case has been set for  Oct. 29.

Arraignment for the drug charges has been set for Oct. 8. Lee remained in Flathead County Detention Center as of Friday.

Reporter Megan Strickland may be reached at 758-4459 or by email at mstrickland@dailyinterlake.com