What is “intent’? What is “choice”? The answers to those abstract questions could be crucial in determining just how many years Bryson Patrick Connolly will spend in a very concrete prison cell.

Connolly, 21, is the Kalispell man who pleaded no contest to charges of shooting at a Flathead County sheriff’s deputy in his vehicle in August 2011, and a parade of witnesses at a sentencing hearing Monday weighed in on Connolly’s level of responsibility in the incident. 

Multiple family members, often speaking through tears, spoke of how Connolly was happy and healthy as a child but was later bedeviled by substance abuse. 

His father, Patrick Connolly, said that his son was in a zombie-like “drug-induced psychotic episode” when he fired 15 rounds from an AK-47 rifle at the patrol car of Deputy Roger Schiff. 

Connolly’s relatives apologized to Schiff and his family and pleaded for mercy from Flathead County District Judge Stewart Stadler, asking that Connolly be given probation and ordered into strict substance-abuse treatment.

The Flathead County Attorney’s Office is recommending a 65-year prison sentence with no opportunity for parole for the first 25 years. After a full morning of testimony, sentencing was delayed to allow the defense to bring one more expert witness to the court on Dec. 17.

Stadler first heard from Schiff and three officers, who were supported by at least a dozen stern-faced Flathead County Sheriff’s deputies in uniform, along with more law-enforcement personnel who were out of uniform.

A close friend of Schiff’s, Deputy Kirby Adams said that when Connolly exited his vehicle, got in a kneeling position and fired 15 rounds at Schiff, those actions demonstrated intent.

“I count that as 15 choices made to take the life of a police officer,” Adams said. “The fact that Deputy Schiff wasn’t killed shouldn’t matter to the court. The intent was clear.”

Schiff’s supervisor, Sergeant Bill Meredith, spoke directly to Connolly as he sat at the defense table. Meredith told Connolly that although did not physically harm Schiff, “you did mentally get to him ... [and] that mental injury spread like wildfire to his family and friends.”

Meredith asked that Stadler impose or exceed the sentence sought by the state. 

“In my personal opinion, you knew what you were doing on that day,” Meredith said, adding that Connolly was able to ask for an attorney after he was taken into custody. “You were thinking clearly.”

Defense attorney Jack Quatman shot back, saying that was hours after the shooting occurred and asking for an attorney shouldn’t be reason for punishment.

Schiff, who was accompanied in the courtroom by his wife, two young children and other family members, told the court that he is still affected by the incident.

“When your life is almost taken, it’s pure shock,” he said, adding that he has subsequently gone through stages of emotions. 

“I did not think I would survive. Each shot, the shots progressed more to my side of the patrol car,” he recalled. The vehicle was struck by three rounds as Schiff quickly backed out of the area to get to safety.

Schiff said the incident made him consider leaving law enforcement. “It was almost a life-ending event. That was a big impact. It was almost a career-ending event. That was a big impact.”

Those speaking on Connolly’s behalf aimed to show that he was severely impaired, and not by run-of-the-mill drugs. He had been using “bath salts,” a synthetic drug that could be legally obtained at the time that produces effects similar to methamphetamines. 

“Basically, it’s a brand new drug,” said Sherrill Brown, a pharmacy instructor at the University of Montana called as an expert witness.

Brown said the effects of bath salts aren’t fully understood yet, but those effects are so adverse that the federal government made them illegal as a Schedule One drug in October of 2011. 

In her research involving 236 case reports, 40 percent of them involved the subject having significant memory loss, a key element of Connolly’s defense.

Sylvia Held, a licensed counselor who has evaluated Connolly, discussed his drug and alcohol use in his early teens, and she said he had untreated attention deficit disorder. She said it is consistent that the drug he was using, along with ADD, would cause short- and long-term memory loss.

“He said he didn’t remember what happened during that time,” Held said of her interviews with Connolly regarding the shooting.

Held recommended that Connolly be sent to the Rimrock Foundation in Billings for intense, inpatient treatment to continue the sobriety that Connolly has maintained during his 16 months in the Flathead County jail. 

Deputy Prosecutor Lori Adams, however, noted that Rimrock is an insecure facility. 

Also testifying as character witnesses were Connolly’s grandmothers, two aunts and his brother, all of them saying that the man involved in the drug abuse and shooting was not the loved one they’ve known. 

Deborah Bryson, an aunt, addressed Schiff, saying “I’m so sorry you had to go through that situation. I want to thank you for retreating so that no one got hurt.”

Bryson said her nephew is faced with a severe prison sentence, which doesn’t compare to the punishment chronic drunk drivers face when they repeatedly endanger or harm people.

“There seems to be something unbalanced about this,” she said, later asking Stadler for “a just and fair sentence of treatment and probation.”

Connolly’s mother, Kimberly, said her son feels that he was rescued, not arrested after the incident and that he is now on the right track.

“I thank God that nobody was physically injured that night. I thank God that Deputy Schiff did not fire back,” she said.

Connolly’s father, Patrick, read excerpts from letters his son has sent from jail to family and friends, indicating a renewed spiritual awareness and a desire to remain sober.

He spoke to Schiff, acknowledging the pain he and his family incurred knowing that he might have been killed. But he said Connolly’s family has similar thoughts about a life wasted in prison.

“We have the same pain. It tears me up inside... That wasn’t him shooting at you,” the elder Connolly said.

Adams asked Patrick Connolly whether he understands that his son and Schiff could have died because of the choices his son made.

“I understand that his ability to choose was severely diminished,” Patrick Connolly said.

He later pleaded to Stadler and said a 65-year sentence would be “primitive vengeance” rather than justice.

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by email at jmann@dailyinterlake.com.