MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) - A young Dixon man was sentenced on Friday to 60 years in prison for his role in a drug robbery turned double homicide almost two years ago.
Prosecutors said Preston Rossbach, 20, followed the lead of Jonathan Whitworth in attempting to rob their drug dealer at a downtown Missoula motel in October 2018 after they had purchased some “bad drugs.”
Whitworth, prosecutors said, shot Megan McLaughlin, Jason Flink and Kaleb Williams, killing McLaughlin and Flink. Rossbach, prosecutors said, then stabbed Flink and Williams, presumably to not leave any witnesses.
The 60-year prison sentence Judge Leslie Halligan handed down Friday means Rossbach will be eligible for parole in approximately 12 years.
Whitworth signed a plea agreement in August to be sentenced to 100 years in prison without the eligibility of parole for 30 years. Whitworth’s sentencing hearing is set for Oct. 13.
Rossbach was convicted by a jury in March on two counts of deliberate homicide, assault with a weapon, tampering with evidence for hiding the knife used in the slayings and intimidation for threatening the two people who went with him and Whitworth to the motel.
At trial, Rossbach’s public defense attorney, Greg Rapkoch, delineated the disadvantages imposed upon Native American communities and how those circumstances led his client, an enrolled member of the Salish and Kootenai tribes, to the hotel room that night.
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