Steamboat Pilot & Today

Steamboat Springs — Two Steamboat Springs men have pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for shooting out the windows of three vehicles with a pellet gun in the early morning hours of Oct. 11.
Robert Lee Jones, 21, and Ryan Cutter, 20, each pleaded guilty to criminal mischief Wednesday afternoon.
The men pleaded guilty to the charge after reaching a plea agreement with Deputy District Attorney Charles Feldmann. Initially, the two men were charged with felony criminal mischief.
In return to the guilty plea, the two men received deferred sentences. If the two men stay out of trouble with the law until Nov. 1, 2001, the charge will be dismissed from their records, said Routt County Judge James Garrecht, who accepted the plea agreement.
"It will be like nothing ever happened," he said to the two men, who have no prior criminal record. "I encourage you take advantage of this opportunity."
The two men also were ordered by Garrecht to pay restitution for the damage they caused.
If the two men violate the deferred sentence, they could be sentenced to one year in the Routt County Jail, fined $1,000 or both.
Feldmann called the men's action "a bad case of judgment."
Jones and Cutter were arrested after a man flagged down a police officer about 2 a.m. in the 900 block of Oak Street.
According to a court file, the man told the officer he had just seen someone in a dark-colored car shoot out a window of his parked car.
Police officers were able to find the suspected vehicle and stopped it as it headed east on Oak Street.
Cutter, the driver of the vehicle, was arrested after he admitted to police he and Jones were shooting at parked cars, the file shows. In all, Cutter told police they damaged three vehicles.
The two men threw the pellet gun out the window of the vehicle when they saw a squad car. Police recovered the pellet gun on 10th Street, the file shows.
At the time of Cutter's arrest, he had just dropped Jones off at his residence. Jones was arrested about 3:30 a.m. Both men spent a day in jail before they posted bond Oct. 12.

To reach Gary E. Salazar call 871-4205 or e-mail gsalazar@amigo.net