FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, January 17, 2008
ROBERT DALE HOWE SENTENCED IN U.S. DISTRICT COURT
Bill Mercer, United States Attorney for the District of Montana, announced today that during a federal court session in Billings, on January 17, 2008, before U.S. District Judge Richard F. Cebull, ROBERT DALE HOWE, a 39-year-old resident of Crow Agency, appeared for sentencing. HOWE was sentenced to a term of:
- Prison: 10 months and 18 days (time served)
- Special Assessment: $100
- Restitution: $1,025.44
- Supervised Release: 3 years, with 3 months of community confinement
HOWE was sentenced in connection with his guilty plea to burglary.
In an Offer of Proof filed by the United States, the government stated it would have proved at trial the following:
In the early morning hours of February 4, 2006, HOWE broke into the building that houses Big Horn Electric Cooperative, Inc. HOWE stole a white Chevrolet truck which contained equipment belonging to Big Horn Electric and personal property belonging to an employee of Big Horn Electric. The burglary was reported to law enforcement at 7:37 a.m.
Law enforcement officers responded to Big Horn Electric and conducted an on-site investigation. They determined that the point of entry was a damaged window on the north side of the building. The officers also observed shoe prints and tire tracks near the building. However, their best lead in solving the case came from information provided by local ranchers, who reported that they saw a white truck stuck in the snow on Indian Creek Road in the Wolf Mountains. This report was made at approximately 10:00 a.m. on February 4, 2006. The ranchers reported that they looked at the truck through binoculars and saw a person in the truck.
Three officers responded to the area where the ranchers reported having seen the white truck. This area is remote and was snow packed in 2006. Before the officers found the truck, however, they found HOWE. He was walking on Sioux Pass Road approximately 12 miles from Interstate 90. A Bureau of Indian Affairs officer asked HOWE what he was doing, to which HOWE replied that he was just walking around the hills. Additionally, the officer immediately noticed that HOWE had what appeared to him to be a rangefinder around his neck and other items that created a large bulge underneath his jacket. The officer told HOWE about the information received from the ranchers and advised him that they were going to take him to the police station for questioning. The officer then advised HOWE that he was going to handcuff him and then search him for weapons for his safety as well as the safety of the officers. While searching HOWE, the officer found a multitude of items, including a bottle of acetaminophen with codeine prescribed to an employee of the Big Horn Electric Cooperative, Inc. HOWE was placed under arrest.
The officers then followed HOWE'S footprints in the snow to the abandoned truck. The truck was the truck stolen from the Big Horn Electric Cooperative, Inc.
Because there is no parole in the federal system, the "truth in sentencing" guidelines mandate that HOWE will likely serve all of the time imposed by the court. In the federal system, HOWE does have the opportunity to earn a sentence reduction for "good behavior." However, this reduction will not exceed 15% of the overall sentence.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Lori Harper Suek prosecuted the case for the United States.
The investigation was conducted by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
