Man sentenced for beating

Daniel McChesney is trapped inside a broken body.

Nearly a year after an alcohol-fueled fight outside a downtown Coeur d’Alene bar, the 22-year-old remains in a Spokane nursing home.

He eats and breathes through tubes. He can shake his head “yes” or “no” when he’s asked a question, and he can point to letters to spell out words.

He smiles.

“I have lived a mother’s nightmare, vastly different but tragic as your own,” his mother, Laurie McChesney, said Thursday, addressing the mother of Matthew Kane, the 24-year-old Coeur d’Alene man convicted of assaulting her son.

Kane was sentenced Thursday to spend 60 days in jail for the June 2006 battery against Daniel McChesney, with credit for the 27 days he served in jail following his arrest.

First District Judge John Luster described the case as an “incredible tragedy” and one of the more difficult sentencings he has handled.

A jury found Kane guilty of misdemeanor battery, a lesser offense than the felony he was initially charged with, punishable by a maximum six months in jail.

Luster said the jury’s verdict was a finding – in the letter of the law – that Kane “did not cause the great bodily harm Daniel McChesney is suffering.”

“I cannot sentence you for having caused these significant injuries to Mr. McChesney because the jury determined you didn’t cause these injuries,” the judge said.

Kootenai County Deputy Prosecutor Denise Rosen said McChesney, a chef at Bonsai Bistro, left work the evening of June 26 to go out with friends.

She described the incident that occurred later that night as a combination of alcohol, anger and bad judgment on Kane’s part.

Both men, who were drinking a great deal, had exchanges throughout the night, Rosen said.

Kane told authorities that McChesney “was an irritant to him,” Rosen said.

The situation escalated into a shoving match. Rosen said Kane grabbed McChesney around the neck and held him up against a light pole. McChesney punched Kane.

“Danny started to walk away,” Rosen said. “Matt Kane beat him down on the ground on top of a cement curb.”

McChesney suffered severe head injuries. His mother testified that artificial bone pieces as big as her palm are being made to repair his fractured skull.

Those who testified on Kane’s behalf described him as a man of integrity and a hard worker.

“I see what has happened here as being an anomaly in terms of everything I know about Matt Kane,” said Tim Christie, a family friend and North Idaho College instructor.

Christie said Kane was also “one of the best students” he ever had.

Another family friend testified that Kane was working full time in an apprenticeship program for Avista Utilities.

Defense attorney Fred Loats asked for a withheld judgment so Kane would not have the crime on his permanent record.

“He’s never been in trouble in his life,” Loats said.

Sentencing Kane to jail could endanger his job, said Loats, who noted that Kane had recently graduated from Lewis-Clark State College with honors and had accepted responsibility for what happened that night.

Kane told the judge that he’s “not the kind of person that goes looking for trouble.”

“I’ve never been a fighter,” Kane said. “I had no interest that night of getting into a fight.”

He said he thinks of McChesney and prays for him every day.

Luster said he believes that “good people, on occasion, do bad things” and that’s what he believes happened in Kane’s case.

“Jail wouldn’t do much in terms of undoing the situation,” Luster said.

The judge said he would allow Kane work release during his jail term and declined to place him on probation, saying he didn’t believe Kane needed to be on supervised probation given his lack of a criminal record.

Laurie McChesney said she felt the sentence was “unjust” and that her appearance in court was just a formality.

“Nothing I do here is going to change the reality of what Dan has to face,” she said.

Instead of anger, though, McChesney said she has chosen to focus her energy on caring for her son.

“Mrs. Kane, I can’t say I’ve spent much time at all thinking about the actual point of tragedy,” she said in court Thursday.

“When and how it occurred, because to dwell there doesn’t change what I watch my son face every day. To lose myself on the subject of your son would be another injustice.”