A Bonners Ferry man was taken in handcuffs from Lincoln County District Court Monday following his sentencing on drug trafficking charges.

Timothy O’Neal Petefish, 60, entered Alford guilty pleas Oct. 20 to one felony count of criminal distribution of dangerous drugs and one felony count of criminal forfeiture. In Montana, an "Alford plea" is a type of guilty plea where a defendant maintains their innocence but admits the prosecution has enough evidence to likely convict them. 

District Judge Matt Cuffe sentenced Petefish according to the terms of a plea deal that called for Petefish to receive a 10-year sentence, with five suspended on the distribution charge and five years, all suspended, on the forfeiture case. They will be served consecutively. He must surrender a Ford F-350 truck.

Petefish also must pay a $2,000 fine. He received 54 days credit for time served.

Petefish’s public defender, Maury Solomon, attempted to explain his client’s rationale for dealing methamphetamine.

“He had the self delusion he was helping people procure drugs at a low price, he’s not literate, but he is aware of the severity of what was done,” Solomon said. “He knows he needs a change in thinking, he’s been cooperative with law enforcement and he’s trying to initiate treatment.”

Petefish made a statement, too, but he spoke quietly and was hard to hear while saying, “I feel bad for this.”

According to a March 22, 2018, story in the Bonners Ferry Herald, Petefish was charged and pleaded guilty to misdemeanor domestic violence without traumatic injury against a household member on Aug. 28, 2017.

According to the charging document in the drug case, filed by Deputy Lincoln County Attorney Jeff Zwang, the investigation began May 4 when county Det. Brandon Holzer conducted a controlled purchase of methamphetamine from Petefish.

Holzer was working with an agent from the Northwest Montana Drug Taskforce and a confidential source. Accoding to court documents, the confidential source met Petefish and the agent saw the defendant hand the source a plastic bag that allegedly held 28.7 grams of a substance that field tested positive for meth.

According to court documents, the source and Taskforce agent met Petefish May 21. The defendant handed the source a black object that contained 57 grams of a crystal material that field tested positive for meth.

Then, on May 28, law officers found Petefish at the state weigh station at the intersection of Highway 56 and U.S. 2. They seized his black Ford F350 truck. A day later, a search allegedly turned up .53 pounds, about 240 grams, of a substance that tested positive for meth.