Ness set to be paroled, not allowed to return to county, reservation
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A Ronan man who has served nine years of a 20-year sentence may be out on parole by late April, but will not be allowed within Lake County or the Flathead Indian Reservation.
Edward Ness was convicted of felony tampering with evidence, a penalty in 2006 that was much more severe than the misdemeanor offense of hit and run — even if the hit resulted in fatal injuries.
The evening before July 1, 2006, Jami Sherman had been out with some friends at a Ronan bar, where friends said she was drinking water. She wasn’t one to frequent bars, according to her dad, Russ Sherman, a longtime Ronan rancher. Jami was a devoted daughter, who at 25 years old still lived at home, helped manage a local auto parts store, and was her dad’s best ranch hand.
Jami left the bar to head home but got her small truck stuck in a ditch on Leighton Road. She was less than a mile from the family farm when she began walking. She never made it. Ness hit Jami and dragged her at least 100 yards.
Ness never stopped to see what he had hit.
“He drug her under the car … on her face, then left her,” Sherman said.
Her body was found at about 2:45 a.m. by a Ronan firefighter who was headed home after responding to a fire call. He was pretty sure he knew who she was, and didn’t want to roll her over, Sherman said.
“Do you know what she looked like? I know what she looked like, because I had to do that,” Russ Sherman said.
Instead, Ness went home to his girlfriend and told her he hit something. After hearing the news of Jami’s death, the pair changed the vehicle’s broken turn signal, disposed of the broken parts and washed the truck.
An intense search for Jami’s killer followed, with reward money offered for any tip that led to an arrest.
Ness never came forward. One month after Jami’s death, authorities acting on a tip arrested Ness and his girlfriend, Krista Orr.
Orr was sentenced to two years for tampering.
Ness, a persistent felony offender, plea-bargained; after spending nearly a year in jail, he was sentenced to Montana State Prison for 20 years on the tampering conviction.
At that time in Montana, the penalty for fatally hitting a person with a car and leaving the scene was a misdemeanor with a maximum of one year in jail and/or $5,000 fine. That crime has now been changed to a felony, thanks to testimony from Russ and Joan Sherman during the 60th legislative session. Although the change came too late for the Sherman family, family members said it brought some good out of a tragic situation.
Ness admitted in court documents that he hit Jami, yet at his sentencing Ness still felt like Sherman’s death wasn’t his fault. The court ordered Ness to pay $3,500 restitution for funeral expenses. In 2009 Ness appealed Supreme Court from prison, saying Lake County District Court erred by imposing restitution of $3,500 in funeral expenses for Jami’s death because his crime of tampering with evidence did not result in Sherman’s death.
The Supreme court ruled that there indeed was a correlation and Ness must pay; however, because an advocacy program covered funeral expenses, payback was ordered to the program, not the family.
“Had Ness not run over Sherman, there would have been no evidence to cover up. Sherman’s funeral expenses result from Ness’s actions,” the Supreme court document states.
Ness was first eligible for parole in 2011.
Russ Sherman fought to successfully keep Ness from parole three times. This time, Ness is getting out. While Russ isn’t happy about it, he is thankful for the letters written by local authorities on his behalf, resulting in Ness’ order to not return to Lake County or the reservation.
Letters asking the parole board to keep Ness from returning were written by Ronan Police Chief Ken Weaver, Polson Police Chief Wade Nash, Lake County Sheriff Don Bell, St. Ignatius Mayor Charles Gariepy, and one signed by numerous Lake County Sheriff’s deputies and detectives.
Craige Couture, chief of police for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, also wrote a letter.
“I was personally involved with the apprehension and arrest of Ed Ness, and found his actions to be appalling … I believe that Mr. Ness will violate his parole/probation if he is allowed to reside on the Flathead reservation,” Couture wrote.
Ness will be released on parole about April 20, if he successfully completes pre-release.
“If he gets caught on the reservation in the next seven years, he’ll go straight back to prison,” Russ Sherman said.
