1 day Ago By MIKE SMITH [email protected]
Prosecutors asked a judge to send a 55-year-old Butte man to the Montana State Prison for 10 years because “the state has not been able to get the defendant to stop abusing women.” The attorney for Gary Ray Jones agreed with the recommended sentence of 15 years in prison with five suspended and also asked District Judge Robert Whelan to impose it. “Your honor, Gary has never not taken accountability for this case,” public defender Kaylee Hafer told Whelan via video from the Butte jail on Wednesday, with Jones sitting by her side.
“My immediate conversation with him was met with remorse for his actions, recognizing there is a history here." Jones “Gary recognizes his chemical dependency issues and knows his problem is alcohol and for the rest of his life he needs to abstain from alcohol,” Hafer said. “We’re not trying to justify his actions in any way.
He knows what he did is wrong and he has remorse about it every day.” Judge Whelan agreed to the plea deal, sentenced Jones to 15 years in prison with five suspended for aggravated assault and ordered him to pay $10,260 in restitution. Jones had previous convictions in Roosevelt and Valley counties that landed him in custody of the Montana Department of Corrections, including assault on a peace officer, DUI for a fourth or subsequent offense and partner-family member assault.
In the latest case, Butte police responded to a disturbance at a house on Oct. 21, 2024 and talked to a woman whose nose was "split wide open." Her right eye was also bruised and swollen and she had dried blood on her various parts of her face, prosecutors said in a charging affidavit.
The woman said earlier that day, she was driving in Butte when Jones attacked her from the passenger seat because his Twisted Tea was left in a shower room at a truck stop in Rocker. She said he grabbed the back of her head, punched her in the face once or twice and then used his finger in a "fishhook manner" to pull her nose, causing it to tear. She drove into a curb, a tire went flat immediately and he made her hold paper towels to her face so she wouldn’t bleed in the car, the affidavit says.
Police located Jones asleep in an RV with several empty alcoholic beverage bottles strewn about, learned he was a registered violent offender, woke him up and arrested him. Jones swore at officers, accused one of targeting him and said “he lived to teach people like him a lesson,” the affidavit says. When asked what he meant by that, he told the officer “he thinks he is going to change the world by arresting women beaters.
” Jones ultimately pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and during Wednesday’s sentencing hearing, prosecutor Mike Clague said prison time might impress upon Jones that he can no longer strike women in the face. Hafer said Jones is very remorseful and cries every time she talks to him about the case. As part of the plea deal and sentencing, prosecutors dropped additional charges of criminal endangerment and strangulation.
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