Blaine C. Fadness, 38, of Post Falls, Idaho, appeared before a jury in Ravalli County District Court, where he faces three counts of attempted murder for allegedly shooting at motorists in the Bitterroot Valley last September.
One of the victims, Kaye Fixsen, said she was driving north on U.S. Highway 93, just south of Darby, on the night of Sept. 11, 2006, when a bullet pierced her car door and struck her in the left knee. Fixsen said she continued driving about six miles because she was afraid the shooter would “return to make sure I was dead.”
“And then I felt liquid going down my leg and I knew I'd been shot,” Fixsen said. “I saw blood trickling down my leg.”
Jurors also heard the emotionally charged 9-1-1 tape of Fixsen's emergency call, which she made after being shot but before pulling her car over.
“I'm just trying to keep going,” Fixsen told the dispatcher. “I don't want them to come back for me. ... I'm scared to pull over.”
Pete Franks testified he was returning from a bowhunting trip when a southbound truck passed him on Highway 93 and he heard a thump on his door, as if a rock had struck his truck. However, when Franks pulled over he noticed a bullet had lodged in his driver's side door just below the window.
“It would have killed me,” Franks said, speculating that the bullet would have struck him in the heart.
William Lee said he was driving in the same area when he also passed a truck and heard a loud noise.
“I thought somebody shot me because of a thump right outside the door,” Lee said.
However, Lee said he convinced himself the noise couldn't have been from a bullet and dismissed the incident. Two days later, though, he noticed a bullet hole in his rear passenger door and called 9-1-1.
“I immediately thought I could have been killed,” Lee said. “I was petrified.”
The question jurors must resolve at trial this week is whether the passing truck was driven by Fadness, who was arrested in Idaho late on Sept. 11, and whether the three bullets were fired from his .22-caliber laser-scope pistol and silencer.
After searching the truck, which was registered to Fadness, investigators also turned up enough munitions to carry out a “paramilitary-type mission,” according to charging documents filed by Ravalli County Attorney George Corn.
Although technically legal, the arsenal aroused plenty of suspicion and includes two sniper rifles “of high grade” quality, according to court records.
On Monday, those weapons were brought into the courtroom in a shopping cart along with three pistols, “copious amounts of ammunition,” 11 spent .22-caliber shell casings, a radio tower capable of tapping into police frequencies, a night-vision monocular, binoculars and a GPS device. Fadness' .22-caliber and silencer that authorities initially seized also were in the mix.
Corn, who's prosecuting the case, delivered his opening statement before a jury panel of four men and eight women, and said he'd prove that all three bullets came from Fadness' pistol.
On Tuesday morning, Corn will call his final witness - Travis Spender, a firearms expert at the State Crime Lab in Missoula. Although the bullet recovered from the door of Pete Frank's truck is badly fragmented, Corn will attempt to prove, through Spender's expert testimony, that the bullets came from Fadness' gun.
Defense attorney Dave Stenerson waived his right to deliver an opening statement at the beginning of trial, but said he intends to make a statement before presenting his case Tuesday.
On cross examination from Stenerson, one investigator acknowledged that Fadness also had several used target sheets in his truck accompanying the guns and ammunition.
During the initial investigation, detectives learned that Fadness maintained a bank account at Farmer's State Bank in Victor. However, Fadness had no known ties to Montana or any discernible income, according to records.
One detective interviewed Fadness' father, who said his son claimed to be a secret government employee and that the profession led Fadness to travel the globe extensively.
Fadness denies he was firing at vehicles and maintains he had been using the weapons for target practice.
However, according to testimony from a detention officer at the Idaho jail where Fadness was initially booked, Fadness made a suspicious statement at the time of his arrest.
When asked by the jailer, Jacob Benson, if Fadness had any previous trouble with the law, the man replied, “No, I was just being stupid,” according to testimony.
Attorneys on both sides said they expect to wrap up the trial on Tuesday.
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