Prosecutors seek revocation of squatter’s sentences
Ashley Katherine Coil appears in Flathead County District Court for her arraignment on a felony burglary charge on Dec. 1, 2022. (Derrick Perkins/Daily Inter Lake)
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.
A subsequent urinalysis showed her positive for methamphetamine, amphetamine, ecstasy and a metabolite of ethanol, in violation of the conditions of her sentences, court documents said.
When detention center officers asked if she would admit to methamphetamine use, Coil allegedly replied, “Yeah, and could probably use some more, got any?”
Hinzeman recommended revoking Coil’s deferred and suspended sentences, suggesting she be sentenced to the state Department of Corrections for five years with no time suspended.
Coil initially ran into legal trouble in the fall of 2022 when a caretaker reported seeing people going in and out of a vacant home, court documents said. Responding Flathead County Sheriff’s Office deputies crossed paths with Coil soon after. Though Coil claimed to own the home, a check of property records disputed her assertion, according to court documents.
After contacting the homeowners, deputies searched the house and found evidence of people living in it for several days, including detritus like empty bottles of alcohol, court documents alleged.
Initially pleading not guilty, Coil reached a deal with prosecutors in April before skipping out on her June sentencing. She struck a second deal in September after picking up the bail jumping charge.
News Editor Derrick Perkins can be reached at 758-4430 or dperkins@dailyinterlake.com.