A Flathead County District Court judge handed down a suspended sentence last month to a man accused of attacking another person with a baseball bat over an outstanding debt in early July. 

Wayne Hickok, 59, initially faced one count of felony assault with a weapon and a misdemeanor count of criminal mischief following the alleged July 3 attack in Columbia Falls. Prosecutors amended the charges to felony criminal endangerment after Hickok took a plea deal in November. 

In exchange for the guilty plea, prosecutors agreed to recommend he receive a suspended three-year sentence with the state Department of Corrections. Judge Heidi Ulbricht stuck to those terms at Hickok’s Jan. 25 sentencing, and gave him credit for 17 days of time served while ordering him to pay $525.96 in restitution. 

The victim in the alleged attack told Columbia Falls Police officers that a drunk Hickok assaulted him with the baseball bat owing to a disagreement over money, according to court documents. Sporting swelling and discoloration near his right elbow, the victim accused Hickok of hitting him twice in the elbow with the bat while aiming for his head, court documents said. 

Investigators subsequently found a 28-inch metal Easton baseball bat about 25 yards from Hickok’s home. 

Authorities located Hickok on Ninth Street West that evening, court documents said. Confronted, Hickok allegedly admitted to arguing with the victim about roughly $800 owed to him. He said he later returned to the victim’s tent and took a bat to it, according to court documents. 

Asked if he had hit the victim with the bat, Hickok “shrugged his shoulders and nodded,” court documents said. 

Hickok picked up a separate felony bail jumping charge after missing a Nov. 3 court appearance. Prosecutors amended the charge to a misdemeanor on Nov. 30 and Hickok pleaded guilty that same day, according to court records. 

During the Jan. 25 sentencing, Ulbricht gave Hickok a suspended six-month sentence in the county jail for the misdemeanor. She ordered the two sentences to run concurrently.

News Editor Derrick Perkins can be reached at 758-4430 or [email protected].