Woman gets 10 years for running over pedestrian

A 45-year-old Columbia Falls woman was sentenced to 10 years with seven suspended under the Montana Department of Corrections for running over a woman with a rental truck last year.

Susan Pajnich initially was charged with negligent vehicular assault and criminal endangerment and faced up to 10 years in prison for each charge. The second count was dismissed as part of a plea agreement.

Pajnich pleaded guilty by way of an Alford plea, meaning she maintains her innocence but acknowledges the overwhelming evidence against her.

Flathead County District Court Judge Heidi Ulbricht sentenced Pajnich on May 7. Ulbricht recommended that Pajnich be placed in the state’s WATCH treatment program and pay restitution to the victim. Pajnich was credited with 146 days in the county jail.

According to court documents, two local residents were standing on South Hilltop Road in Columbia Falls on June 23 about 11:15 p.m. looking at an injured cat laying in the roadway when a northbound Budget rental truck hit one of the residents and kept going.

Samantha Stover said she suffered five fractures to her right eye socket, a broken nose and jaw, fractured teeth, damage to her right tibia, and paralyzing nerve damage above her right eye. A compound fracture to her left forearm required three metal plates, she said. Stover spent two days in the hospital and hasn’t been able to work since the incident.

A Montana Highway Patrol trooper tracked down the rental truck at a residence on Jellison Road and spoke to Pajnich. She was transported to North Valley Hospital for a blood test that allegedly revealed a blood alcohol content of 0.28 percent — more than three times the legal limit.

Pajnich read a prepared statement prior to her sentencing.

“I have relived the events of that night every day since,” she told Ulbricht.

Flathead County Attorney Ed Corrigan noted that even though this was Pajnich’s first felony conviction, the danger she posed warranted serious consideration.

“She could’ve struck at least one other person, and we’re lucky we didn’t have two people dead on the highway that night,” he said.