Convict sentenced for crimes in three counties

A career criminal will spend the next 20 years under the supervision of probation and parole officers after a yearlong crime spree that spanned three counties.

James Rand Hernvall, 35, pleaded guilty to felony tampering with physical evidence in March in Flathead District Court. Hernvall was sentenced by Judge Amy Eddy to 20 years with the Montana Department of Corrections with 15 years suspended.

Hernvall was convicted after he fled the passenger’s side of a vehicle stopped by a Montana Department of Criminal Investigation officer at 1:30 a.m. on Nov. 11, 2014.

The driver of the vehicle told a confidential informant that Hernvall had fled the vehicle and hidden methamphetamine under a rock off Political Hill in Lakeside. An investigating officer found two ounces of methamphetamine under the rock.

Hernvall’s Flathead County sentence will run concurrently to an identical net sentence handed down by Sanders County Judge Deborah Kim Christopher late last year.

Hernvall was convicted of two counts of felony burglary and one count of felony theft after he was found in Sanders County with a truck stolen from Lake County on March 19.

Authorities determined that Hernvall had rented a storage unit in Plains to store items from a number of burglaries. Among items found in the unit were bolt cutters, 16 license plates and numerous items of drug paraphernalia. Items found were believed to have been stolen from Washington state and Western Montana.

Defense attorney Brent Getty said that he hoped two decades under supervision would be enough to get Hernvall back on track.

“If 20 years isn’t enough, five years won’t make a difference because he will be in prison before then,” Getty said.

Hernvall was also fined $500.

This sentence is the latest in Hernvall’s long history of brushes with the law. Hernvall was convicted of misdemeanor criminal trespass after authorities used a helicopter to chase him down on Melita Island on Jan. 15, 2015, after he was caught rifling through mailboxes.

Charges of felony assault with a weapon and theft were dropped last year in a case where Hernvall allegedly followed a woman and her mother on a motorcycle until she pulled over at a gas station on U.S. 2, a day after she told police that Hernvall had taken a vehicle from her.

Hernvall then allegedly pulled out a pistol, said, “You f----- with the wrong person,” and pointed the gun at the woman before he sped off.

In 1999, Hernvall received a 30-day jail sentence and two years of probation for a string of thefts from vehicles in Libby.

On March 29, 2004, Hernvall was given a three-year suspended sentence in Lincoln County for felony criminal possession of dangerous drugs.

Six months later, Hernvall survived being shot three times in the chest in Flathead County in an incident that left investigators scratching their heads over who to charge in the crime.

Hernvall’s wife told investigators that the pair were followed from Scotty’s Bar to Airport Road where they pulled over. The wife said that two armed men approached the car and asked if she or Hernvall had drugs or money. The woman told the alleged robbers that there was money in her car trunk.

The woman said there was actually a baseball bat that she intended to use. She said she tried to call a relative for help as she rummaged through the trunk.

One of the men pointed a gun at her and Hernvall was shot in a scuffle with the men, the woman claimed. She said the men shot at the car twice as they drove away.

When police interviewed the two men, they claimed that Hernvall came at them with a tire iron and that he was shot in an act of self-defense.

The woman did not cooperate with police and no one was charged.

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