Parker awaits sentencing for assault charge
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Matthew Phillip Parker, 31, of St. Ignatius entered a guilty plea in Polson District Court on June 11 to felony assault with a weapon.
The plea came as part of an agreement that will dismiss, at sentencing, felony charges of strangulation of a partner or family member, sexual intercourse without consent, tampering with a witness or informant and misdemeanor partner or family member assault.
The charges stem from two separate incidents. According to charging documents, the first assault involved Parker hitting his victim with a baseball bat on February 23. The victim said Parker accused her of cheating on him and attacked her with his fists hitting her multiple times in the ribs and jaw until she lost consciousness. When she awoke, she said Parker was standing over her with a bat and began hitting her with it.
Parker, she said, got behind her and wrapped his arm around her neck and choked her until she lost consciousness a second time. She said all of this occurred in front of her 1-year-old child. The victim eventually went to an area hospital. She told staff at the hospital that she was attacked by three women with baseball bats – which is what Parker instructed her to do.
Prosecutor Molly Owen, with the Lake County Attorney’s Office, said the victim spent five days in the hospital. She was assaulted and raped by Parker after being released from the hospital.
The plea agreement calls for Parker being sentenced to the Montana State Prison for twenty years. Judge Deborah “Kim” Christopher, who is not bound by the agreement, set sentencing for July 30.
