Hungry Horse woman pleads guilty to homicide

The 55-year-old Hungry Horse woman charged in the shooting death of her boyfriend on Valentine’s Day pleaded guilty to mitigated deliberate homicide on June 24.

Pamela Ruth Haines had pleaded not guilty to a more serious charge of deliberate homicide on March 13 and faced from 10 to 100 years in prison if convicted. The penalty for mitigated deliberate homicide is 2 to 40 years.

Haines was arrested Feb. 14 at a mobile home on First Avenue West in Hungry Horse after she reportedly called 911 and told dispatchers she had shot her 71-year-old boyfriend.

Thomas Eugene Edwards had been shot once in the chest with a .380-caliber automatic and died at the scene. Haines allegedly admitted shooting Edwards after she was transported to the county jail.

According to initial charging documents, the shooting followed an argument between the couple, who had recently moved to Hungry Horse from California. Haines was held on a $500,000 bond.

Flathead County District Court Judge Heidi Ulbricht accepted the amended charge on June 24 and granted the prosecution’s motion asking that Haines undergo a second mental health evaluation at the Montana State Hospital in Warm Springs.

According to the terms of a June 23 plea agreement between the county attorney’s office and defense attorneys Vicki Frazier and Noel Larrivee, if doctors at Warm Springs conclude that Haines “could not appreciate the criminality of her conduct or conform her conduct to the requirements of law,” then she can change her plea to “guilty but mentally ill.”

In that case, Haines could be committed to the Montana State Hospital for up to 40 years with no restriction on her eligibility for parole. If the hospital director determines it is no longer necessary to keep her there, he must inform the county attorney’s office, Haines’ defense attorneys and the court.

If doctors do not find evidence of a mental illness, her guilty plea to mitigated deliberate homicide would stand and Haines could be committed to the Montana State Women’s Prison for up to 40 years with no restriction on her eligibility for parole. Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 24.