Montana Supreme Court orders new sentence for man convicted of attacking Kalispell Police officer

Montana’s highest court ruled in May that a Kalispell man convicted of wounding a police officer in 2023 should have had his mental condition considered before being sentenced to prison.  

A jury found Joshua William Myers-Starks, 40, guilty of head-butting and punching a Kalispell Police officer on Oct. 17, 2023, leaving the officer with cuts to the left ear and forehead, swelling on his face and bruising beneath his eye.  

Officers arrested Myers-Starks at the behest of the staff at a North Meridian Road homeless shelter, who reported him for allegedly lighting objects on fire. He was warned about his behavior the previous day, according to documents filed in Flathead County District Court. 

Following the April 2024 trial, then Judge Robert Allison sentenced Myers-Starks to 10 years in Montana State Prison. 

But Myers-Starks appealed his conviction and sentence, and the Montana Supreme Court agreed that Allison, who retired at the end of 2024, erred by failing to consider his mental condition at the time of his offense.  

The state Supreme Court ordered the lower court to review the case again and determine whether Myers-Starks' mental illness rendered him unable to understand the criminality of his actions during the offense.   

DEFENSE ATTORNEYS didn't seek a mental evaluation leading up to the trial. However, in a separate case, another judge ordered Myers-Starks to undergo a fitness-to-proceed evaluation, according to court documents.  

During the trial, Myers-Starks behaved disruptively, at times throwing a cup and a pen and yelling profanities at the arresting officer as he testified, forcing the court into recess, according to court documents.  

Owing to his outbursts, Myers-Starks' defense team arranged an independent psychological evaluation that resulted in a diagnosis of schizophrenia and higher-functioning autism. 

After watching footage of the 2023 incident, the psychologist found that Myers-Starks “was likely to respond poorly and in socially inappropriate and provocative ways to the officer’s escalating demands” and recommended he be placed in the custody of the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services, according to court documents.  

Myers-Starks' defense team submitted the evaluation a day before sentencing and asked the judge to delay proceedings until his mental health could be considered, but Allison sided with prosecutors and sentenced Myers-Starks to a decade in prison.  

“Though he raised numerous issues on appeal, we hold that the District Court’s failure to consider Myers-Starks' mental condition at the time of his offense was error,” wrote Justice Katherine Bidegaray in the Supreme Court’s May 5 opinion. 

“This was an abuse of discretion,” the opinion said.  

While prosecutors argued at sentencing that it was too late to raise mental illness, the Supreme Court found that the defense preserved the right to raise the issue until a mental evaluation occurred. 

In a concurring opinion, Chief Justice Cory Swanson said that while he agrees it was wrong to sentence Myers-Starks without determining whether he was mentally ill, “I differ with the Court in assigning the blame.”  

Swanson argued that it was the defense’s responsibility — not the prosecutor’s or judge’s —  to address Myers-Starks mental illness earlier in the case. 

“The defense attorney was ineffective as counsel because he failed to understand Montana’s law and failed to advocate on behalf of his client,” Swanson said.  

Myers-Starks was booked back into the Flathead County Detention Center on May 22. His case was reassigned to Judge Paul Sullivan and a status hearing is set for June 18. 

Reporter Jack Underhill can be reached at 406-758-4407 or junderhill@dailyinterlake.com. If you value local journalism, pledge your support at dailyinterlake.com/support.