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Goullette enters pleas in fatal collision

KEITH KINNAIRD | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 6 years, 9 months AGO
by KEITH KINNAIRD
News Editor | April 21, 2018 1:00 AM

SANDPOINT — A Bonner County man who accumulated a number of criminal charges while awaiting trial for vehicular manslaughter tendered a series of pleas Friday, 1st District Court records show.

Peter Franklin Goullette entered Alford pleas to a felony charge of manslaughter and a misdemeanor reckless driving charge in connection with a 2016 collision which killed one pedestrian and seriously injured another. Under the terms of the plea, Goullette admits no wrongdoing but concedes he could be convicted if the case went to trial.

Goullette, 24, faces up to 10 years in prison when he is sentenced on June 18. He remains held at the Bonner County Jail on various bails.

Goullette is accused of accidentally killing Katherine K. Stelzer, a 61-year-old Mead, Wash., resident and severely injuring Zualita Updike of Clark Fork with his pickup truck in June 2016. The two women were walking along McGhee Road when they were struck.

Goullette’s pleas head off a jury trial on those charges, which was set for later this month.

While Goullette was awaiting trial, he was accused of perpetrating a home invasion in Sagle and breaking a man’s arm with a baseball bat on March 18. He was further accused of threatening another man with the bat and other witnesses at the scene in an alleged attempt to silence or influence their testimony, court records indicate.

That incident produced charges of aggravated battery, burglary and three counts of witness intimidation.

Goullette entered into a pretrial settlement agreement which saw him plead guilty to aggravated assault and witness intimidation. The remaining counts will be dismissed and the state is recommending concurrent one- to five-year prison terms to be served consecutively to the sentence imposed in the manslaughter case, court documents said.

Another case alleging Goullette attempted to use a third party to influence witness testimony and violations of a no-contact order remains in place, court records indicate.

Keith Kinnaird can be reached by email at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow him on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.

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