Bail reduction denied for man accused of pulling gun in separate incidents

The Kalispell man accused of twice pulling a gun in separate incidents just days apart in July maintained his innocence in Flathead County District Court on Sept. 8, but saw his bid to have bail lowered fail moments later.

Jose Angel Estrello, 39, faces two assault with a weapon charges in a pair of cases working through district court. Arraigned before Judge Dan Wilson on Thursday, Estrello pleaded not guilty in both cases.

Prosecutors allege that Estrello on July 16 pulled out a pistol during a dispute with a group of people trying to save a parking space at Tally Lake Campground. On July 22, Estrello allegedly pointed a gun from inside a Chevrolet Equinox at the occupants of another vehicle while heading southbound from Whitefish to Kalispell.

In both cases, the victims took down the license plate of the gun-wielding man’s vehicle and turned it over to authorities. The plates came back registered to Estrello, court documents said. A deputy with the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office later staked out Estrello’s home near McMannamy Draw and saw him drive by in an Equinox matching the victims’ descriptions.

Also included in court documents was a description of a run-in Estrello allegedly had with authorities in the days before the Tally Lake Campground encounter. In the documents, prosecutors wrote that law enforcement found Estrello “extremely confrontational.” They allege he insinuated he planned to buy an AR-15 to defend himself from authorities, made reference to gang affiliations and his prior prison time, and told them he was unafraid of dying.

“The [Sheriff’s Office] believes Estrello is armed and extremely dangerous,” prosecutors wrote.

BOOKED INTO county jail Aug. 18, Estrello’s bail was set at $500,000. During Thursday’s hearing, his attorney, Daniel Wood, sought to see him released on his own recognizance— potentially with a GPS device — or bail reduced to an amount Estrello could afford.

Joy Estrello, his wife, testified that without him home, she was forced to care for her disable parents — a 24-hour a day job — as well as her autistic son. She needed surgery, she told the court, but her doctors were hesitant to perform the procedure without her husband.

“I am having the hardest time keeping this all going by myself,” she said, choking up on the stand. “My husband only wants to help me with all the burdens on my shoulders and he wants to take care of me.”

She described Jose Estrello as an honorable husband and a loving stepfather to her young son.

“I can’t do it alone,” Joy Estrello said.

In court filings, prosecutors highlighted Jose Estrello’s criminal history for bond purposes, a record that includes felony convictions in California for robbery, grand theft auto, possession of drugs in prison and charges for kidnapping for ransom, burglary and assault by a prisoner.

Joy Estrello also sought to explain her husband’s past. He has no present gang affiliations, she said, and claimed he spent the last year of a 14-year prison stint in protective custody to break ties with a gang. He recently celebrated his ninth year free from behind bars, she said.

Deputy County Attorney John Donovan, though, repeatedly pressed her on the litany of crimes attributed to Jose Estrello. The prison stint, she said under his questioning, stemmed from his robbing a drug dealer. She later acknowledged a spate of gang-related crimes prior to his prison sentence under the prosecutor’s questioning.

Donovan also probed Jose Estrello’s ties to the community. Joy Estrello said the two met over Facebook. He moved to the Flathead Valley to join her in February 2021. He is presently unemployed, she said, having lost his driver’s license.

To questions posed by both Wood and Donovan — and later Judge Dan Wilson — about the availability of firearms, Joy Estrello said her home was free of guns. Authorities cleaned the property out, she told the court.

IN ARGUING for Jose Estrello’s release, Wood noted his inability to meet bail and said he did not present a flight risk. Donovan, though, painted him as a threat to community safety.

Citing the criminal history, Donovan noted he should never have held a firearm, as alleged in court documents.

“Estrello has felony convictions precluding him from possessing firearms,” Donovan told the court.

He also pointed to the proximity of the two incidents and noted Jose Estrello’s relatively recent arrival in the county.

Wood argued that his client had done his time for past misdeeds.

“[Estrello] has paid his debt to society … He did a significant amount of time in jail,” Wood said.

He criticized prosecutors for not bringing witnesses forward to corroborate the alleged threats Estrello made against local law enforcement and said he was likely to argue self-defense in at least one of Estrello’s cases.

Prior to delivering his ruling, Wilson deemed Estrello’s wife’s testimony as attempting to minimize his criminal past. Given that Estrello’s previous behavior was more extensive “than just about anything this court sees on a day-to-day basis,” Wilson described her testimony as not credible. He took particular note of the charges Estrello earned while behind bars, particularly assault by a prisoner.

Wilson also said he considered the threats to law enforcement “extremely concerning.”

“They indicate that Estrello … feels he has a legal right to defend himself from law enforcement,” Wilson said, before describing the alleged statements as “terroristic” in nature.

Like Donovan, the judge noted that Estrello should not have had a firearm under any circumstances.

“Estrello poses a tremendous … threat to the community safety,” Wilson said as he denied the bail reduction request.

Wilson scheduled an omnibus hearing in the case for Nov. 16 with a pretrial conference slated for Jan. 4.

News Editor Derrick Perkins can be reached at 758-4430 or dperkins@dailyinterlake.com.