GILLETTE (WNE) — The man accused of pointing an AR-15-style rifle at a car full of people after cutting them off reached a plea deal that recommends probation on reduced charges.
Christen H. …
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GILLETTE (WNE) — The man accused of pointing an AR-15-style rifle at a car full of people after cutting them off reached a plea deal that recommends probation on reduced charges.
Christen H. Best, 18, pleaded no contest March 15 to amended counts of possession of a deadly weapon with unlawful intent, a felony, and misdemeanor reckless endangerment.
District Judge James M. “Mike” Causey accepted and withheld judgment on the felony plea and found Best guilty of the misdemeanor.
A plea deal recommends Best serve a deferred sentence with two years of supervised probation for the felony and serve 10 days in jail, with the rest of the 180-day sentence suspended, for the misdemeanor.
His sentencing hearing is scheduled for June 13.
Best was originally bound over Oct. 20 on four counts of aggravated assault and battery.
On Aug. 26, Gillette police officers responded to East 12th Street and Highway 59 where a 48-year-old woman reported that the driver of a silver Honda with a Georgia license plate, later identified as Best, cut off the car she was in while driving north on Highway 59.
The Honda cut from the outside lane into the middle lane. When the 41-year-old man driving the Chevrolet full of people switched into the outside lane in response, Best allegedly slowed his car down, rolled down his window and began yelling at the people inside, according to the affidavit of probable cause.
Best allegedly raised a military-style rifle with his right arm across his body, pointing it toward the woman and her 4-year-old son in the back seat. He then put the gun down and drove away.
Best told officers he cut off the blue Chevrolet and claimed he was in fear for his life when he was then driving side by side with the car and saw someone in the back seat “reaching.”