A judge sentenced one of two men convicted in the shooting death of a Butte man during a botched bounty hunt to 40 years in the Montana State Prison on Thursday.
Jay Hubber listens to District Judge Robert Whalen during sentencing on Thursday, June 20, 2024.
District Judge Robert Whelan said he knew Jay Steven Hubber didn’t go into William Harris’ house on Dec. 19, 2021 with any intention of killing anyone.
“However, I cannot ignore the facts and circumstances under which everything transpired,” Whelan told Hubber. “At best you were negligent in your conduct — more appropriately probably grossly negligent in your conduct, which resulted in the death of William Harris.”
Whelan sentenced Hubber to 60 years in prison for deliberate homicide by accountability but suspended 20 of those years. He gave Hubber 20 years for aggravated burglary but that will run concurrently to the longer sentence.
A jury in March found Hubber and Nicholas John Jeager guilty on aggravated burglary and homicide charges tied to the bounty hunt. They were trying to apprehend fugitive David Sandoval but Harris, the homeowner, was killed.
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The jury convicted Jaeger of deliberate homicide and aggravated burglary and Whelan was to sentence him later Thursday.
Prosecutor Kelli Fivey asked for a combined 100 years in prison for Hubber on Thursday while Hubber’s attorney, Palmer Hoovestal, asked for a 10-year suspended sentence.
Prosecutor Kelli Fivey addresses District Judge Robert Whalen during sentencing for Jay Hubber on Thursday, June 20, 2024.
