A 36-year-old man accused of kicking vehicles left in a Columbia Falls parking lot in May later received a suspended jail sentence.  

Prosecutors charged Morgan Alan Pruett of Columbia Falls with felony criminal mischief in Flathead County District Court following the alleged May 29 incident. He pleaded not guilty before Judge Danni Coffman at his June 19 arraignment but took a deal with prosecutors the following month.  

In exchange for a guilty plea to an amended charge of misdemeanor criminal mischief, prosecutors agreed to recommend Pruett pay restitution and serve a suspended six-month jail sentence.  

Coffman stuck to the terms of the deal at Pruett's July 31 sentencing. She gave him credit for eight days of time served and ordered him to pay $1,994 in restitution.  

Columbia Falls Police officers confronted Pruett about 9:40 p.m. after receiving reports of a man wearing a western hat and cowboy boots damaging vehicles in a lot near Second avenue West and Seventh Street West, according to court documents. A review of surveillance footage allegedly showed Pruett kicking the passenger door of a white Ford Flex before doing the same to a parked Columbia Falls patrol vehicle.  

The kick to the Ford Flex caused estimated damages of more than $1,500, court documents said.  

Pruett agreed to a preliminary breath test at the scene, which returned at 0.202, according to court documents. 

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