Suspect in gas station fight earns six-month sentence

A Kalispell man accused of injuring another man with a knife in a gas station scuffle in April earned a suspended six-month sentence to the Flathead County Detention Center earlier this month.

Robert Eugene McCarty, 36, initially faced a felony assault with a weapon charge in Flathead County District Court related to the April 17 melee at the Kalispell business. Prosecutors simultaneously sought the revocation of a five-year sentence with the state Department of Corrections that McCarty began serving last year after his conviction on felony criminal endangerment and misdemeanor assault with a bodily fluid charges.

McCarty’s most recent run-in with law enforcement began after he allegedly gestured with his middle finger at a man’s wife at the North Meridian Road gas station. During an ensuing confrontation with her husband, McCarty pulled out a small knife, court documents said.

Though the victim defended himself using a sign as a shield, McCarty allegedly cut him twice in the scuffle before fleeing. McCarty later told investigators that the other man confronted him unprovoked and threw him to the ground, according to court documents.

His 2022 conviction stemmed from the alleged shoplifting of wine from a Kalispell store. He fought with employees, biting one hard enough to draw blood, as he fled the business and later sought refuge in a library branch where Kalispell Police officers arrested him, court documents said.

McCarty allegedly spat at the officers en route to the county jail, telling them he hoped they would contract a virus from his saliva.

McCarty struck a deal on Sept. 14, agreeing to plead guilty via an Alford plea to an amended charge of misdemeanor assault and admit to the violations of his suspended sentence. In exchange, prosecutors agreed to recommend the suspended half-year sentence to county jail for the assault charge and another five-year suspended sentence following the revocation.

In an Alford plea, a defendant maintains their innocence while acknowledging a jury likely would find them guilty.

Judge Amy Eddy handed down the suspended six-month stint in county jail on the morning of Sept. 14 on the assault charge, giving McCarty credit for 115 days of time served. McCarty appeared before Judge Danni Coffman that afternoon, receiving the suspended five-year sentence on his 2022 conviction after making his admissions.

Coffman gave McCarty credit for a total of 183 days and ordered the sentence to run concurrent with the six-month sentence handed down earlier in the day.

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