Extended-stay motel shooter given 30 years in state prison

Judge Amy Eddy sentenced convicted murderer Steven Justin Hedrick on Thursday to 30 years in the Montana State Prison for the 2023 slaying of Jeffery Brookshire in a Whitefish extended-stay motel.

Handing down the sentence in Flathead County District Court, Eddy also gave Hedrick, 34, credit for 437 days of time served and ordered him to pay restitution. A jury found Hedrick guilty of felony deliberate homicide Jan. 19 after deliberating for about six hours.

Hedrick headed into the trial, which spanned the better part of a week, accused of confronting a noisy and belligerent neighbor in the hallway of the Locals Monthly Lodging building while armed with a gun. Aimed at Brookshire’s head, the single-action revolver, which Hedrick had cocked before placing his finger on the trigger, went off while the two argued. Surveillance footage of the shooting played for jurors showed Brookshire crumple to the floor. 

Asked if he had anything to say during the April 4 sentencing, Hedrick said: “Just [that] this was a tragedy.”

“I agree,” Eddy replied.

Prosecutors argued during the trial that Hedrick committed felony assault with a weapon when he leveled a loaded handgun at Brookshire. That Brookshire died as a result led to the deliberate homicide charge. 

“This was a hallway argument,” said Flathead County Attorney Travis Ahner, who prosecuted the case, at sentencing. “Multiple people argued with the victim that night but only Mr. Hedrick brought a gun into that situation. He brought that gun into that situation and he’s now been convicted by a jury of deliberate homicide.”

Ahner sought an 80-year prison sentence for Hedrick. 

Amanda Gordon, Hedrick’s attorney at the time, mounted an affirmative defense on his behalf, arguing that Brookshire represented a threat and Hedrick was justified in confronting an aggressive and belligerent man from his doorway with a gun.

Benjamin Darrow, who began representing Hedrick following the trial, accused Gordon of failing her client and abandoning him after the jury returned with a verdict. He unsuccessfully filed a motion for a new trial in the hours before sentencing and later indicated Hedrick would turn to the Montana Supreme Court for relief.

“We’re trying to create a record at this time and that’s what, essentially, the complaint is,” Darrow told Eddy. “Mr. Hedrick was going to go forward on what was a very defensible case and his counsel failed him.”

Eddy noted that a motion for a new trial must be filed within 30 days of conviction while Darrow argued that Gordon’s departure made filing such a motion a hardship. Eddy ultimately denied the request. 

Darrow also sought leniency for Hedrick, asking that Eddy sentence him to perhaps 10 years in the Montana State Prison suspended or 20 years with 10 years suspended. 

In requesting an 80-year prison sentence, Ahner offered transcripts of jailhouse calls made before and after the trial. While he opted against reading them aloud, Eddy summarized the phone calls, noting that Hedrick made derogatory statements about detention center personnel in one and expressed his opinion that “all cops need to be shot.”

A third transcript, possibly from one of the previous calls, included derogatory language about Eddy, according to the judge.

“I find it chilling that he would state after this case that he thinks ‘This is why I [expletive] think all cops need to be shot, everyone of them, jail guards and otherwise,’” Ahner said. “He has a history … of violence and defiance and racist attitudes.”

Ahner told Eddy that during his more than a year in the county jail, Hedrick had also fought with other inmates — in some cases throwing the first punch — harassed detention center personnel, secured jailhouse alcohol and used a spork to fiddle with the lock to his cell. 

As for the transcripts, Eddy was nonplussed. 

“These comments by the defendant are not a surprise to the court,” she said. “They were alluded to during the course of the trial … Just for purposes of sentencing, this evidence is really nothing new.”

She instead focused on Hedrick’s argument of self defense, noting that the right to bear arms, including drawing a firearm for protection of life and property, came with responsibilities. A jury found that Hedrick failed that test, that the armed confrontation was unjustified and led to Brookshire’s death, she said. 

“The jury verdict provides a needed reminder … that in enjoying these rights all persons recognize the corresponding responsibilities that come with these rights,” she said, calling Brookshire’s death “a catastrophe and a tragedy.”

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