Man gets 65 years in prison for hatchet homicide

GREAT FALLS (AP) — A Great Falls man was sentenced Monday to 65 years in prison for killing another man with a hatchet during a March 2018 street fight.

A Cascade County jury in September convicted James Michael Parker, 35, of deliberate homicide, assault with a weapon and witness tampering in the death of Lloyd Geadry, 45.

Geaudry died of a sharp force injury to his neck that fractured his spine and severed an artery, court records said. "A total of 11 people were involved in the street fight in Great Falls, prosecutors said.

District Court Judge Elizabeth Best sentenced Parker to 55 years for the homicide and another 10 years for assaulting another person during the fight, the Great Falls Tribune reported. She also sentenced him to a concurrent 10 years for witness tampering.

Best also ordered Parker to pay $14,000 in restitution.

Parker has been in custody since November 2018, according to county jail records.