One of three teens charged for a string of Evergreen burglaries last year is headed to Pine Hills Youth Correctional Facility.

Bradley Bradford, 15, previously admitted burglarizing Evergreen Gas and Deli on Sept. 9, Smoke Haus Emporium on Sept. 15, Subway on Sept. 30 and Army Navy on Nov. 11. He also admitted damaging a door at Flathead Glassworks on Oct. 17, a door at Pacific Hide and Steel on Oct. 18 and a window and cash register at a McDonald’s on Oct. 28.

Bradford admitted four counts of felony burglary and three counts of criminal mischief, while an additional four felony burglary charges, one felony criminal mischief charge and four misdemeanor criminal mischief charges were dropped.

On Friday during Youth Court proceedings, Bradford was remanded to the Montana Department of Corrections with a recommendation that he be placed at Pine Hills until his 18th birthday or until it is determined it’s appropriate that he be released.

Bradford’s probation also was revoked in a 2011 felony criminal mischief case for spray-painting approximately 30 vehicles along with a group of other youths.

After his release, Bradford could remain on probation until age 21 if he has not completed his requirements, which include paying more than $10,000 in restitution, $7,490 of it to Army Navy. He will be joined in paying the restitution by any other co-defendants who admit to or are found guilty through a trial of participating in the burglaries.

While on the stand Friday, Bradford gave some explanation of why he and other boys burglarized the businesses, saying the initial idea came after a friend stole cigarettes and “made a lot of money” reselling them. 

He said the after he participated in his first burglary, it seemed easy, so he and others continued with the crimes.

Bradford testified that the boys had a sort of “unspoken plan” that each would pick one place they would burglarize.

He said Tanner Rohletter, 16, who has denied all allegations against him, chose to burglarize Subway to get money for marijuana, and Bradford and Dalton Leigh, 14, selected McDonald’s to burglarize so Leigh could get money for snowboarding equipment.

At the beginning of the hearing, Leigh — who had previously denied all allegations — was called to the stand and admitted his participation in the Army Navy burglary.

Bradford said he personally was more interested in items such as Microtech knives from Army Navy, but that he was “thinking about saving up for a snowboarding pass.”

Leigh and Rohletter each have a hearing set for April 10.

BRADFORD’S PAST as well as his family life were discussed in some detail during the hearing, in particular Bradford’s time on probation for the spray-painting.

He originally was placed on probation at least until age 16 and, along with a co-defendant, was ordered to pay more than $1,680 in restitution.

Bradford admitted violating his probation less than three months after his sentencing. His probation was reinstated at the same level with no noticeable changes.

His problems while on probation, however, were numerous and varied, according to Chief Juvenile Probation Officer Nick Nyman. Nyman went so far as to say of Bradford: “I don’t believe him to be supervisable in any way.”

Among his issues was a drug problem: Bradford failed four out of five drug tests he was ordered to take. Bradford said Friday that prior to his current incarceration he was smoking marijuana every day.

Bradford also said it had been recommended that he go through chemical dependency treatment, but that he never did because he was never ordered to.

In addition, while on house arrest with a GPS ankle monitor, he managed not only to remove the monitor, but to remove it without setting it off, leaving his home to spend time with the very friends with whom he now claims he committed his crimes.

“I was getting bored at my house, and I was kind of getting sick of being bored,” Bradford said.

When asked why he didn’t work on his ordered 229 hours of community service — to be served through a sweat equity program along with his co-defendant in order to pay his restitution — he said community service was “more boring than being in the house.”

In the end, Bradford only completed 15 hours of community service, with his co-defendant completing the remaining 214 hours.

Bradford also failed to appear once for his disposition hearing on the new case, originally scheduled for July 6. 

BRADFORD’S MOTHER, Sondra Smith, described her son as extremely intelligent and a good person with an independent streak. 

That independence, along with his lack of maturity, she said, made him a difficult child to raise, particularly as a teenager.

Smith explained that her son would sometimes leave home to be with his friends and not return for as long as a week at a time.

“He gets bored and he likes to leave,” she said, later adding “he can leave for a week and is fine, can be perfectly OK. It really amazes me.”

She admitted that she could use some help learning how to handle such behavior.

“I wouldn’t say that I punished him or took anything away, but I did try to talk to him about it,” Smith said.

Nyman said Smith was just as troublesome to deal with as Bradford. Nyman said from the very beginning, not only was Bradford uncooperative but the situation between the probation department and the family was “never a workable situation.”

In particular, he said the family was very uncooperative in holding Bradford accountable for his actions.

It was Nyman’s opinion that regardless of where Bradford’s disposition took him, he needed to be “behind locked doors for the community’s safety,” noting that Bradford already had to be detained six or seven times. He also said Bradford was not attending school.

WHILE HANDING DOWN his judgment, District Judge David Ortley said the community needed to be protected from Bradford.

“Your conduct literally terrorized the Evergreen business community,” Ortley said.

However, he offered several encouraging comments to Bradford, particularly a statement made to Bradley by one of the burglary victims in a letter.

“‘Be honest, work hard, do good will always get you what you truly need in life,’” Ortley read.

“That just sounds like something written on a piece of paper, but it is actually a formula for success, and I would encourage you to go back and look at these any time you think this has all just been a bunch of nonsense and you haven’t been treated fairly, I want you to go back and see what these statements have to say.”

Ortley also commended Army Navy owner Briar Purdy for holding his emotions in check and even providing encouragement to Bradford in his own letter.

“Mr. Purdy, I give you credit for not just being, frankly, mad as hell and just wanting blood,” Ortley said.

Ortley also ordered Bradford to undergo a chemical dependency evaluation and a mental health assessment and to follow any treatment recommendations.

He also ruled that Bradford should complete up to 214 hours of community service at the discretion of his parole officer in the event that he is community placed.

Reporter Jesse Davis may be reached at 758-4441 or by email at jdavis@dailyinterlake.com.