Convicted veteran gets 6-year deferred sentence

Flathead District Court Judge David Ortley on Thursday gave a former Kalispell man a six-year deferred sentence for committing an armed robbery of a Kalispell Town Pump in November 2014.

Ortley’s decision came after prosecutors and defense attorneys worked for two years to figure out an appropriate sentence in the case, which was complicated by the fact that the robber, Jeremy Conder, 31, claimed to be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder caused by combat service in Afghanistan.

“It’s disingenuous at best to pretend that we know what to do with you,” Ortley said. “We have not served.”

Ortley said that Conder is not the only veteran in the community who is suffering.

“If there is one thing our community desperately needs it is a veterans court,” Ortley said at sentencing.

Veterans Treatment Courts are staffed with personnel who are specifically trained in how to deal with the mental health and emotional disorders that often result from combat. There are only a handful of the courts in Montana and they have only been in existence since 2011. Veterans courts have a higher level of supervision, according to Ortley.

As part of his sentence, Conder will have to complete the veterans court in Great Falls, where he is now living. He received credit for 135 days he spent in jail and was ordered to pay $1,800 in fines and fees.

Conder was convicted of felony criminal endangerment in the case, after prosecutor Travis Ahner agreed to amend the original felony charge from robbery. Conder was caught the day of the robbery at the scene, after his truck wouldn’t start. He had come into the store in a football jersey, gloves, a mask fashioned from a scarf, and a BB gun that was so authentic looking that the sergeant who investigated the case did not realize it wasn’t of a more serious caliber until he examined it.

Conder pointed the gun at a clerk and demanded money. Another clerk was there and was frightened by his actions.

On Thursday, Conder’s victim sat feet away from him in court for hours. He said he did not recognize her until she took the stand. The victim testified that she was more angry that Conder pointed a gun at her than emotionally scarred by the event.

Conder explained that as a result of a traumatic brain injury and the PTSD he incurred from his service in Afghanistan, he sometimes suffers episodes where he does not remember what he’s doing. He and his father testified that it has been a huge change from Conder’s behavior before he left for war.

Conder joined the Army in 2006. He was first stationed in Washington, D.C., where he served as a member of the Honor Guard at Arlington National Cemetery. The unit performs military funerals and guards the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

During his four years in the honor guard, Conder said he helped perform a handful of funerals every day. Then, he was sent for a nine-month deployment in Afghanistan.

“He was an articulate, calm, nice kid,” Conder’s father, Cory Conder, said. “After he came home from Afghanistan, he was a different personality. He was distraught, troubled. He struggled with distinguishing, for the lack of a better word, reality.”

Conder testified that his unit in Afghanistan saw combat nearly every day.

“Everywhere we went we had to carry a metal detector because of (improvised explosive devices),” Conder said.

In one instance a blast threw Conder up against a wall. In another, Conder watched a nearby truck explode after a 500-pound improvised explosive device was detonated. The blast tossed him around in a nearby truck. In another case, Conder and a comrade had moved a few feet when a mortar exploded where the pair had just been sitting. If they had moved two seconds later, they would have been killed or badly injured, Conder testified.

“Out of 120 people there were approximately 100 Purple Hearts given,” Conder testified in regards to his unit. “We lost two people and we lost two interpreters.”

Conder did not immediately see the symptoms of his service.

“You get so numb to it at the time, it doesn’t become an issue until you get back to the real world and try to function,” Conder said.

About a year after he was honorably discharged, Conder said he started to have difficulties. He would get into disagreements with co-workers over things that should have been small, but escalated into something more.

“I ended up losing approximately five jobs in five months,” Conder said.

Things progressively seemed to get worse, Conder testified. He was at first rated at 20 percent disabled but that was later upgraded to 40 percent.

Among his problems are night terrors.

“I’ll do things that I don’t remember in the morning,” Conder said. “Usually it’s violent things in my house like taking all the clothes out of my dresser, punching a wall.”

His father testifies that Conder sometimes sleeps more than 18 hours a day and can’t function. At the time of the robbery, his father said he was on the Interstate driving to Kalispell to come get his son. He heard about the crime on the radio and knew he was a few hours too late.

Even though he said he can’t remember the crime, Conder testified that he regrets it.

“I feel bad,” Conder said. “At the time, I wasn’t thinking about people. I was somewhere else. I know from experience, once things happen it can affect you. I’m sorry. I’ve felt bad for a long time about it.”

After the incident Conder went to an intensive eight-week treatment program at Fort Harrison that is specifically designed to help combat veterans with PTSD. Though Conder said it has helped him he still has issues and needs treatment. He also testified that of the eight people in his small group, only six are still alive. Two of the group members committed suicide. Conder said that having the felony case drawn out has greatly impacted his ability to recover, because his therapists only want to talk about his legal issues. He also did not qualify for some programs that could help him until his legal problems were cleared up.

Prosecutor Travis Ahner testified that he tried to give Conder the benefit of the doubt in handling the case.

He agreed to reduce the charge from robbery to criminal endangerment, but was concerned by some elements of the case, like the fact that Conder put on the gloves and fashioned a scarf into a mask to conduct the robbery.

“This case means a lot,” Ahner said. “I’ve spent a lot of time agonizing over this case. I don’t take lightly for one second his military service. I also don’t take lightly what these two clerks went through.”

Ahner said the case took so long to resolve partly because he was watching to see how Conder reacted.

“I wanted more time because I wanted to see how Mr. Conger would respond,” Ahner said. “Every time I was ready to give him some leniency, he gave me a reason to give pause.”

Ahner said that the incidents included three disorderly conduct citations that were issued after the robbery, an instance where Conder was allegedly caught brewing jail house hooch with orange peels, and an incident where Conder plowed into another vehicle and pushed it 100 yards in Great Falls because he claimed that it was parked in such a way that it annoyed him.

Ultimately Ahner also recommended a probationary sentence in the case, but one that was a bit more harsh than Ortley’s final decision. Ahner recommended a 10-year suspended commitment to the Montana Department of Corrections.

“My leniency has to end based on how he’s conducted himself through these two years,” Ahner said.

But defense attorney Lane Bennett urged Ortley to take into account the extenuating circumstances.

“This case shows us what can happen when men who are in daily combat, daily putting their lives on the line, protecting our freedom,” Bennett said. “I think that it is up to this court to look a Jeremy Conder and his actions and say that this is an aberration of his character and but for the fact that he spent nine months in daily combat, this would have never happened.”

Ortley agreed to some degree with Bennett.

“You served your country with honor and distinction and we all have to acknowledge that,” Ortley said. “When you came home, your world fell apart.”

Ortley said he was confident that Conder’s actions were not done out of malice.

“I remain absolutely convinced that they are not the result of criminal thinking or of someone who is a bad person.”

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