James Lawrence, 71, was sentenced to 50 years in prison last Friday for shooting Ed Loder in 2024 near the victim’s home on Timberlane Road in Ronan.

Loder’s family, including son Greg and daughter Erica, as well as his brother, Jack, and sister Adell, were on hand in the crowded Polson courtroom, with Judge Molly Owen presiding.

In a statement from the family, Greg said they supported the imposition of a 50-year sentence recommended by prosecutors in a plea agreement reached this spring.

Loder, who was 67 when he died, “never raised a hand in anger,” said Greg. “He wasn't the name on a docket. He was the son of our family, the beloved fixture in the valley where he grew up. He was murdered for a piece of paper that named him in someone else's will, an inheritance he didn't even ask for.”

Greg also mentioned the lasting impact of his father’s death on Loder’s seven young grandchildren “who call him Papi or Grandpa Ed.” All have received therapy to help them cope with loss.

“Some of them still struggle with nightmares and high anxiety as a direct result of Jim Lawrence's cruel actions,” he said.

The inheritance Greg mentioned was from the estate of Mary and Ward Mendenhall, next-door neighbors of Loder. According to testimony at the hearing, Mary Mendenhall left the bulk of her estate, valued in the millions of dollars, to Loder in a will drawn up by Ronan attorney Bill Williams and signed Feb. 6, 2020, at the law office of French, Grainey and Williams. She died in April of that year.

That same document bequeathed $5,000 apiece to James Lawrence and his wife, Deb, who had both helped Mary and her husband, Ward Mendenhall, through the years.

Angella Collins, who witnessed the will being signed, testified that Mary Mendenhall, then 92, was in her right mind at the time of the signing and that she had mentioned at a prior meeting in the attorney’s office that she felt uncomfortable with the Lawrences having knowledge of her bank accounts, as well as where she had hidden money “in the warming drawer of her oven.”

Lake County Attorney James Lapotka asked Collins if there was “anything shystery” – or underhanded – about the signing of Mendenhall’s will. 

“There was nothing shystery about it,” she replied.

Another issue raised at sentencing was whether the homicide was premeditated or not, with Lawrence stating that he hadn’t planned to commit the murder when he drove down Timberlane Road the morning of Aug. 31.

In a statement read by Lawrence’s attorney, Benjamin Darrow, the defendant claimed he went to look at a truck, saw Loder walking along the bike path (as Loder often did), and they had “a heated conversation” about the Mendenhall will.

The defendant “saw black, and when he came to, just moments later, Ed had been shot,” said Darrow, killed by a pistol “that was hidden in his (Lawrence’s) hand.” Darrow also argued that if the killing was intentional, Lawrence “would have been much more careful and organized,” and not committed murder on a busy street, leaving blood stains on the pavement and cartridges nearby.

Darrow argued for a 40-year sentence with 20 suspended, to give Lawrence “a light at the end of the tunnel and provide some way for him, if he’s good in prison, to get paroled out.” He also pointed out that Lawrence led officers to the body following his initial arrest and interrogation.

Officer paints picture of premeditation 

In his testimony, Deputy Brandon Gale painted a different portrait that seems to indicate the murder was premeditated. Using technology that tracks cell phone signals, he showed that Lawrence had been in communication with Jonathan Drennan-Beck – who has since pleaded guilty to two counts of evidence tampering – twice the day before the murder, and again the day of the murder, and had driven from his home in Polson to Drennan-Beck’s home near Mission around 9 a.m. on the day of the murder.

Reviewing video footage from businesses and homes along the suspected route, officers found evidence of a red Chevy Silverado, later identified as Lawrence’s, turning down Timberlane at 9:37 a.m., and reappearing on the security video at Don Aadsen Ford nine minutes later.

At that same time, Loder’s phone can be traced moving south, in a time that corresponds with movements of the red truck as captured on security monitors. The phone goes quiet near St. Ignatius, until it reemerges from the Jocko Canyon at 10:51 a.m. and is picked up by a cell tower in Arlee.

This corresponds to video footage of the truck, which pulled into the Shiny Suds carwash in Arlee at 11:10, where Loder’s cell phone emits its final signal.

Security videos catch footage of the truck as it heads north, and in the vicinity of Mission, Lawrence’s phone again comes online around noon as the defendant returns to his home in Polson.

Drennan-Beck’s phone also begins to show activity at about noon after going quiet around 9 a.m. Although Drennan-Beck’s home security camera was turned off on the day of the murder, officers recovered some deleted cached files that show a red truck and a man matching Lawrence’s description appearing at his house the day before the homicide.

In his closing statement, Lapotka argued for the maximum sentence afforded by the plea agreement – 50 years for deliberate homicide and 10 for evidence tampering, to run at the same time.

“This is a case where the defendant has manufactured a story where he's the victim and the victim is a bad guy. He has a grievance over an inheritance that he didn't receive,” said Lapotka. “It's a story of greed and vengeance. It's a story about money that he didn't earn and nobody gave him. And he's so angry about it that he took another man's life four years after it happened.”

As to Lawrence’s claim that the two had a heated conversation just prior to the shooting, Lapotka pointed out that when asked in his initial interview if the two had exchanged words, Lawrence replied, “no, I just got him. I don't know why I did that.”

Lapotka also encouraged the judge to consider Loder’s family and especially his seven young grandchildren in sentencing Lawrence, so that they won’t face a possible parole hearing in anything less than 10 years.

In meting out the sentence, Judge Owen said, “I do not believe Mr. Lawrence's account of what happened, and there was clear premeditation that occurred.”

    James Lawrence, who pled guilty to deliberate homicide in the murder of Ronan resident Ed Loder on Aug. 31, 2024, awaits Judge Molly Owen's sentence during a hearing last Friday. The judge remanded him to Montana State Prison for 50 years. (Kristi Niemeyer/Leader)