Details emerge in Whitefish stabbing

A number of major revelations about the case of a man stabbed by his wife in Whitefish were made during a bond hearing Friday afternoon.

AnnMari Newton, 39, had pleaded not guilty to felony assault with a weapon Thursday after being arrested for stabbing her 37-year-old husband Chad Newton during a fight at their 1115 O’Brien Ave. home Nov. 25.

A court document in the case claims AnnMari called 911 immediately after the incident, and responders found Chad on the kitchen floor with a stab wound to the left side of his chest.

Chad has been hospitalized at Kalispell Regional Medical Center since the incident, and Deputy County Attorney Travis Ahner reported that medical staff have said he is unresponsive and not going to improve.

A guardianship hearing has been set to give Chad’s father permission to make medical decisions for his son, including removing him from life support.

During Friday’s bond hearing, the Newtons’ next-door neighbor and a friend from their previous home of Girdwood, Alaska, testified that Chad had been in a downward spiral of alcohol and anger issues, leading to threats of suicide as well as threats to murder AnnMari.

Other revelations included the presence of an adult witness to the crime who reportedly told law enforcement that AnnMari and Chad had each been armed with a knife before she stabbed him.

At the end of the hearing, District Judge Robert Allison ordered AnnMari’s bond reduced from $75,000 to $25,000.

Bonnie Closson testified that she has known the Newtons ever since they moved in next door roughly four years ago. She described both as doting parents of a son and daughter, now 5 and 8, respectively, who were polite and well-adjusted.

But things between the couple started to change recently, Closson said, resulting in a pair of police responses to their home. During one of those incidents, Chad was repeatedly placed in the back of a patrol car while talking with police.

“It looked like he’d get belligerent and they’d stick him back in the cop car,” she said. “I don’t know how many times they did that, quite a few.”

Another time, Closson said she saw an officer speaking with AnnMari on the porch.

The incident that made her worry deeply about her neighbors occurred after the two police incidents.

“[The Newtons’ son] ran into the house and said, ‘My dad is trying to kill my mother.’ So that was, you know, pretty shocking,” Closson said. “And then [their daughter] came in, and then not too long after that AnnMari came in and she was very upset because they had had an encounter.”

She said AnnMari had bruises on her arm and side, and that Chad had grabbed her by her hair and swung her into the refrigerator.

AnnMari and both of the children spent that night at Closson’s home.

Closson also spoke of a recent trip to Michigan by Chad. She said AnnMari didn’t want him to go, as he was supposed to be undergoing treatment — later reported by another witness to be anger management classes — as ordered by his supervisors at work.

She said Chad was thrown off the train he was taking to Michigan due to belligerent behavior, initially leading AnnMari and their children to fear that he had died or committed suicide.

While discussing the Michigan trip, Closson also mentioned a phone call that she overheard between AnnMari and Chad.

“He told her that he would kill her if she took the kids,” Closson said.

Closson also reported seeing Chad drunk several times, but said she had never seen AnnMari drunk.

Richard Lauderbach introduced Chad to AnnMari when she first arrived in Girdwood in November 2004. He said that, at that point, they were both vibrant, happy people.

But Lauderbach said he started receiving frequent calls from both AnnMari and Chad early this fall, seeking guidance in continuing troubles in their relationship, largely connected to money woes. AnnMari was a stay-at-home mother, and Chad was in trouble at work, eventually losing his job.

Lauderbach referred to a pair of calls he received from Chad after he returned from Michigan. Lauderbach said Chad was crying and not making a lot of sense.

“At the end of the conversation, he said, ‘I can fix the whole thing. I’ve got a rifle in the closet behind me,’” Lauderbach said, adding that Chad saw suicide as the best possible solution.

Chad then told Lauderbach not to tell AnnMari what he had said, and when Lauderbach would not promise, hung up on him suddenly. He called back again later, not crying and speaking in a completely different voice.

“He said, ‘Do not call the police and do not call AnnMari. I know where you live,’ and hung up,” Lauderbach said.

In addition to his conversations with Chad, Lauderbach said he heard Chad in the background “fairly often” when he would talk to AnnMari.

“AnnMari called me in the middle of the day, and we had been talking for a while. All of a sudden I heard the door open and Chad said, ‘What are you doing in here?’” he said, saying AnnMari was in the pantry at the time. “He said, ‘Get off the [expletive] phone,’ and ... I remember him saying, ‘I’m gonna kill you, you [expletive] [expletive].’”

In his final comments regarding AnnMari’s bond and possible release, defense attorney Sean Hinchey noted that she has no criminal history of any kind, including no speeding or parking tickets, and that she was willing to surrender her passport and submit to any type of monitoring requested by the court.

The passport was a sticking point for both sides, as AnnMari is a Swedish citizen whose mother, father and two brothers are in Sweden.

“I don’t say this lightly and I don’t say it often, but this, in my experience as an attorney, is one situation where I truly hope, judge, that your honor would release Mrs. Newton,” Hinchey said.

During Ahner’s final statements, he revealed several pieces of the prosecution’s case, including the presence of the witness.

Hinchey objected to presentation of the information, arguing that Ahner could have called the witness as he had called his own, rather than merely repeating the witness’ statements. Allison overruled the objection.

According to Ahner, the witness reported the couple had been involved in mutual fighting involving a significant amount of drinking, and the witness “saw AnnMari in a combative stance holding a knife.”

He also reported that AnnMari gave at least two completely different, contradictory stories to police about what happened, saying first that a stranger had come into the home and stabbed Chad before admitting she had stabbed him. Ahner said that when she admitted stabbing Chad, she did not claim it was in self-defense.

Hinchey gave rebuttals to some of Ahner’s statements, pointing out that the witness reported Chad was also going after AnnMari with a knife.

In reducing AnnMari’s bond, Allison also set conditions of release stating that if she posts bond, she will be barred from drinking any alcohol and must submit to GPS monitoring as part of formal house arrest.

AnnMari voluntarily turned over her passport.

Her trial is currently set for April 28. If convicted, she faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $50,000.