Prosecutors seek revocation of squatter’s sentences

A woman given deferred and suspended five-year sentences in September for allegedly squatting in a vacant Columbia Falls area home last year and later skipping out on court appearances is back in the county jail. 

Prosecutors filed in Flathead County District Court on Dec. 13 a petition to revoke Ashley Katherine Coil’s deferred five-year sentence for a criminal mischief conviction and suspended five-year sentence on a bail jumping conviction, alleging she almost immediately began violating the terms of those sentences.

The 38-year-old never checked in with her probation and parole officers following her Sept. 20 sentencing and release from the Flathead County Detention Center, according to a violation report filed by Probation and Parole officer Kyle Hinzman on Dec. 12. When authorities eventually picked her up, she acted erratically, Hinzman wrote.