Man convicted in Highway 93 sniper shootings

HAMILTON, Mont. – A District Court jury on Tuesday convicted an Idaho man of shooting at two vehicles traveling on U.S. Highway 93 in Western Montana last fall, hitting one motorist in the knee.

Blaine C. Fadness, 38, testified Tuesday that he fired at passing vehicles in the Bitterroot Valley out of “stupid frustration” when drivers didn’t dim their high beams.

“I never in my wildest nightmares thought I was going to touch a vehicle,” Fadness said. “I had no intention of hurting anyone.”

Jurors deliberated for less than an hour before convicting Fadness on all three felony counts of attempted murder.

Fadness, of Post Falls, was arrested Sept. 11 while driving south on Highway 93 with an arsenal of weapons and ammunition in his vehicle. He was the lone suspect in the three shootings, which damaged three other vehicles.

“I never thought I was going to hit anything,” Fadness said. “It was like throwing a snowball. You think it’s going to fall short.”

Kaye Fixsen testified during the two-day trial that she was northbound on Highway 93, just south of Darby, when a bullet pierced her car door and struck her in the left knee.

She said she continued driving for about six miles because she was afraid the shooter would return.

Pete Franks told jurors he was returning from a bow-hunting trip when he passed Fadness’ southbound truck and heard a loud noise. When Franks pulled over, he noticed a bullet hole in his driver side door, just below the window.

William Lee said he was driving in the same area when he passed a truck and heard a noise. Two days later, he found a bullet hole in the rear passenger door of his sport utility vehicle and called police.

Travis Spinder, a firearms expert at the state crime lab, said the bullets came from a .22-caliber pistol equipped with a laser sight and silencer, items that were found on the seat beside Fadness at the time of his arrest.

To prove the charges of attempted murder, Ravalli County Attorney George Corn had to convince jurors that Fadness was shooting with the intent to kill.

Corn said Fadness’ intentions were obvious based on the precision of each shot and his familiarity with firearms.

“He knows full well what he was trying to do when he fired that pistol,” Corn said. “He was trying to kill people. The facts show that he acted with purpose.”

Fadness, the only defense witness at trial, told jurors that on the night of Sept. 11, he was on his way to a gun show in Nevada, where he was meeting an old friend.

He said the men planned to do some target shooting in the desert, which is why he had packed a cache of munitions, including two sniper rifles, three pistols and a stockpile of ammunition.

Fadness also was traveling with a radio tower capable of tapping into police frequencies, a night-vision monocular, binoculars, a GPS device and other scouting equipment.

His attorney, Dave Stenerson, said the weapons didn’t prove Fadness was planning to kill anyone.

“Did Blaine commit a crime? You bet he did,” Stenerson said in summation. “Did he commit the offense of attempted deliberate homicide? Did he try to kill people? No, he did not. Your job today is to determine whether he fired those rounds with a murderous heart. I think you’ll find that he had no murderous intent.”

But Corn emphasized that Fadness knew too much about firearms to be unaware of the danger, and his shots were too accurate to be mere happenstance.

“You were three for three in your shooting, weren’t you?” Corn asked.

“Unfortunately,” Fadness replied. “I was frustrated and at most was trying to shoot a taillight or bumper.”

District Judge Jeffrey Langton scheduled a tentative sentencing date for May 23 and ordered Fadness to undergo a psychological evaluation.