Two Teens Admit Role In Campground Attack Couple Camping Near Inchelium Robbed; Boyfriend Kidnapped

The final two defendants in an Inchelium-area campground attack last August accepted plea bargains Wednesday.

Sheldon L. Pakootas, 18, and Victor A. Antoine, 17, admitted they hacked their way into a young Omak couple’s tent at a remote campground on the Colville Indian Reservation and robbed the couple.

A third Inchelium-area defendant, Michael J. Boyd, 17, was convicted in a plea bargain two weeks ago of raping the woman while holding her hostage. The woman told authorities Boyd knocked her unconscious with a shovel, and he was starting to rape her when she woke up.

Pakootas, armed with a hatchet, and Antoine forced the woman’s boyfriend to drive them 50 miles north to Kettle Falls to withdraw money from a bank machine.

The woman escaped by kicking Boyd and running to other nearby campers for help.

The boyfriend deliberately violated traffic regulations to attract the attention of a Kettle Falls police officer. The officer pulled the car over and arrested Antoine and Pakootas with help from a service station employee.

Ferry County Superior Court Judge Rebecca Baker convicted Pakootas of first-degree robbery, second-degree robbery, two counts of second-degree kidnapping and criminal trespass after he admitted in an Alford plea that there was enough evidence to convict him. Pakootas faces a standard range of six to nine years when he and Boyd are sentenced next month.

Antoine was the first to be sentenced. Baker gave him 3-1/2 years in prison as soon as he made his plea Wednesday to reduced charges of first-degree robbery, unlawful imprisonment, and first-degree trespass. He faced a standard range of three to five years, and Prosecutor Steve Graham recommended the maximum.

Graham said he considered Antoine the least culpable of the three defendants because he was the only one who didn’t wield a weapon. Also, Graham said Antoine was the youngest and he reportedly encouraged the others to abandon the crime at one point.

But Graham noted Antoine had previous convictions for burglary, malicious mischief and third-degree theft.

State law required all the defendants to be tried as adults.

Antoine has been held in an isolation unit of the county jail since December, when his bail was revoked because of drug and alcohol use. Graham said Antoine also slapped a young girl while out on bail.

Pakootas also had his bail revoked in December after he allegedly wrecked a car he stole so he could drive to a drug dealer’s house and pay a debt.

Defense attorneys plan to appeal Judge Larry Kristianson’s decision to try the cases in Superior Court instead of tribal or federal courts. All three defendants are members of the Colville Confederated Tribes, but Kristianson said they were subject to state law because the crime was on nontribal land owned by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

The attack occurred at the Rogers Bar campground on Lake Roosevelt, about 20 miles south of Inchelium, within the Colville Indian Reservation.

Pakootas and Antoine originally were charged with two counts of firstdegree kidnapping, two counts of first-degree robbery, first-degree burglary and car theft. In addition, Pakootas was charged with second-degree assault.