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Alleged Hayden Lake shooter earns another felony charge

Ralph Bartholdt Staff Writer | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 5 years AGO
by Ralph Bartholdt Staff Writer
| December 26, 2019 12:00 AM

Justin Adrian Hill didn’t know when he repeatedly pulled the trigger on a semi-automatic rifle last month that the bullets struck more than his family’s home and cars.

The stray rounds also peppered the homes of his Hayden Lake neighbors, according to police.

Because of the additional damage, Hill, 32, earned another count of battery, in addition to a new felony charge of possession of a controlled substance.

The charges will be added to a second-degree attempted murder charge, two counts of aggravated assault, and an exhibition of a deadly weapon charge, and two counts of malicious injury to property, all felonies.

Attorneys said Monday they would dismiss three misdemeanors.

Hill was arrested by a SWAT team Nov. 14 for allegedly threatening to shoot his sister in the face and shoot his mother while in a drug-induced rage at their residence on the 3200 block of East Hayden Lake Road. He allegedly used an M-16 style rifle, according to witnesses, to riddle a Subaru Forester and a Subaru Impreza with bullets and spray the inside of his family’s home.

Hill was bound over to First District Court after an evidentiary hearing, but his arraignment Monday in Coeur d’Alene before District Judge Richard Christensen was continued because attorneys said they were close to a resolution in the case.

The new felony drug charge was added, but had not yet been scrutinized at a probable cause hearing. Hill said he would waive the hearing. He pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanor battery charges.

“We’re anticipating a resolution,” deputy public defender Linda Payne said.

She also asked Christensen to consolidate the seven felony charges against her client.

Payne said a plea agreement should be reached by next month. Hill’s next hearing is scheduled Jan. 7.

Hill was arrested naked after dark in a neighbor’s yard after allegedly threatening his family with a firearm, spraying bullets in their home and shooting holes into cars and homes in the area.

After family members told police around 11 p.m. that Hill was on drugs, armed and making threats inside their home, authorities received another call from a neighbor who heard more than a half dozen gunshots.

Kootenai County sheriff’s deputies escorted the victims from the house before searching the neighborhood. SWAT members found Hill standing naked in the dark near a fence with his hands raised, and his clothing and belongings scattered around the yard, according to police.

He is being held on $500,000 bail at the Kootenai County jail.

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