Former C-Falls man returns to answer burglary charges

More than 12 years after the alleged crime occurred, a former Columbia Falls resident appeared Thursday in Flathead County District Court to answer to charges of burglary.

Curtis Alan Hartman, 37, of St. Paul, Minnesota, was released on his own recognizance after pleading not guilty to two felony counts of burglary stemming from a 2012 incident at a Kalispell sandwich shop.

Hartman’s attorney, Scott Hilderman, said his client had been living out of state and after learning of the charges, he returned to deal with them.

Flathead Deputy County Attorney John Donovan agreed it was appropriate for Hartman to be released on his own recognizance, but said he shouldn’t drink or enter bars or taverns and he must attend any required hearings and maintain contact with his attorney.

The shop, Big Town Hero Deli, isn’t open now, but it was when law enforcement officials allege Hartman and four others planned to steal a safe inside the shop on the night of Jan. 25, 2008.

According to the original charging document, a deli employee called the Kalispell Police Department after finding a drive-thru window broken after she arrived at the shop.

Police officers saw holes in a door and a window in an inside office. The door to a floor safe was open and the owner of the shop estimated nearly $2,000 was missing.

According to the document, the owner closed and locked the shop at about 6 p.m. after two other employees left at 4 p.m. At about 10 p.m. the same night, two employees returned to the shop and went inside, using a key.

They allegedly planned to steal the safe and break the drive-thru window to make the entry appear forced. But the two employees saw the safe was bolted to the floor so they made sandwiches and returned to one of their homes.

Later that night, one of the employees, who wasn’t charged, called another female employee and got the safe combination. She then gave the combination to a fellow store employee, Kelly Cecil Campbell.

At 11 p.m., Hartman and Campbell allegedly returned to the shop and stole money from the safe. Hartman reportedly offered some of the money to one of the store employees, but she refused to accept. Another witness said he accepted $100 from Hartman to pay off a debt, according to court documents.

Campbell originally faced two burglary charges, but both were dismissed after he agreed to plead guilty to a felony count of criminal distribution of cocaine.

Campbell got a three-year deferred sentence, but later served time after he violated his parole due to using drugs and alcohol. Campbell was also charged in 2011 to accountability to robbery and theft after three other men held a 16-year-old girl at gunpoint while stealing a gun safe from a Whitefish residence.

Campbell received the guns from one of the men involved in the robbery. The local charges were later dismissed, but Campbell received a five-year, 10-month sentence in federal court for being a felon in possession of a gun.

Reporter Scott Shindledecker may be reached at 758-4441 or sshindledecker@dailyinterlake.com.