Young Man Gets Boot Camp for Apartment Shooting in April
An 18-year-old man convicted in an April shooting spree will avoid imprisonment if he successfully completes a boot camp program, a judge said Thursday.
Matthew Pintenny, who is from Albuquerque, New Mexico, was among three people who fired multiple shots at a building in the 2600 block of South McKinley Street, and was charged with numerous felonies that could have netted him about 100 years in prison if convicted on all counts.
But in a plea agreement reached by Assistant District Attorney Blaine Nelson and Public Defender Joseph Cole, eight of the 10 counts would be dismissed leaving one count of aggravated assault and battery and one count of conspiracy.
That plea agreement included a six- to eight-year prison term, with a boot camp recommendation.
Nelson said that prison was warranted because of the seriousness of the crime on April 4 when he and two others -- Terrin Bergh and Daniel Marin-Laris -- decided to shoot up one of their "'oppositions'" houses.
However, Nelson added that Pintenney had developed serious remorse as seen in the presentence investigation.
The boot camp recommendation would remove him from the risk of being around the peer group that influenced him, and it would offer him treatment for substance abuse, he said.
Cole agreed.
Pintenney spoke to the court and said he apologized for his action, took responsibility for being around "the wrong kind of people" and hoped the boot camp would help him.
Before handing down his sentence, Wilking said probation was not appropriate and that Pintenney did not have a significant criminal history, but she noted the seriousness of the offenses and the numerous victims in the shooting.
She also observed his remorse expressed in the presentence investigation and his comments in court.
Judge Catherine Wilking handed down the six- to eight-year prison sentence with credit for time served, and recommended the youthful offender program and declared him a "qualified offender" meaning he would receive substance abuse treatment.
She encouraged him to fully participate in the boot camp program, because he will do prison time if he fails to cooperate.
"You really have to embrace that program," Wilking said.
The case started on April 4 when a Casper Police Officer responded to an apartment building in the 2600 block of South McKinley Street where residents reported a silver Nissan had been seen in the area followed by a number of gunshots to three of the apartments.
The residents said they had no idea who could have done this or why, but they had recently become acquainted with a man who later was identified as Marin-Laris.
Two days later, Mills police were dispatched to a convenience store for a vehicle parked there for a long time with the occupant still inside. The officers found Marin-Laris, and controlled substances and shell casings in the vehicle that matched shell casings found at the scene of the apartment shooting.
Through other information, police located Pentinny and Bergh at a local hotel, as well as controlled substances and firearms.
In an interview, Pentinney said he was picked up by Bergh and another man on April 3 in Albuquerque, obtained a stolen gun there, drove to Casper, and while sitting in a vehicle at a store parking decided to wipe a perceived enemy "'off the face of the map.'"
That perceived enemy lived in the building on South McKinley Street.