A Eureka man busted for dealing drugs in September while awaiting sentencing for a shooting case reached a plea bargain and pleaded guilty to criminal distribution of dangerous drugs on Thursday.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys have agreed that Leif Logan Lee, 27, should serve 10 years with five years suspended plus two consecutive five-year suspended sentences for both cases.

The judge is not bound by the plea agreement, but Lee’s deal allows him to withdraw his plea if the judge does not follow the agreement. He is set to be sentenced by Flathead District Judge Amy Eddy on Jan. 21.

While on the stand, Lee admitted selling drugs to confidential informants in Lincoln and Flathead Counties.

According to court documents, on Aug. 19 Lee arranged to sell methamphetamine to an informant working with law officers.

The informant was given $700 in cash to pay Lee for a past drug debt. After the informant paid the $700, the informant asked Lee for more methamphetamine.

Lee said the meth was not at his home on Doble Drive, and left on an all-terrain vehicle to retrieve it. Lee returned 20 minutes later, weighed the drugs, and gave them to the informant. Lee noted that the informant now owed $900.

The drugs were handed over to police and tested positive for methamphetamine.

On Sept. 7, Lee contacted the informant asking for the $900 he was owed. A day later the informant and Lee met in the parking lot of a retail store on U.S. 93 in Kalispell, exchanged the money, and offered to sell the informant another 1.5 ounces of methamphetamine later that day. At this point, officers with the Northwest Drug Task Force arrested Lee and searched his home.

Officers confiscated the $900 in Lee’s pocket, an iPhone, two additional ounces of methamphetamine, $1,000 in additional cash, a digital scale and several firearms.

The arrest came three days after Lee pleaded guilty Sept. 4 to two amended counts of criminal endangerment for shooting two people outside Rail Line Tavern in Marion on June 14.

Witnesses told police that Lee had been arguing with a woman and that when someone tried to intervene, he pulled a gun and shot the person twice in the hand and arm. One of the bullets also struck the woman, who was transported to the hospital with serious injuries.

Lee fled on a motorcycle.  

Reporter Megan Strickland can be reached at 758-4459 or mstrickland@dailyinterlake.com.