Judge –You are Remarkably Young to have a Number of Convictions
21 year-old Cody Houk is in the Missoula County Jail on $100,000 bond after being charged with felony aggravated burglary, assault with a weapon and misdemeanor Partner or Family Member assault.
Houk appeared on Monday before Judge Alex Beal in Missoula Justice Court accused of breaking into a house over the Christmas weekend, assaulting another man with a hammer and then assaulting a former female partner, identified only by the initials K.R.
Chief Deputy County Attorney Matt Jennings appeared for the state and detailed the charges against Houk.
“The state recommends that bail be set at $100,000,” began Jennings. “The behavior of this defendant shows that he is a danger to this specific victim, one of whom is in the courtroom. Today KR is sitting right behind me. She was terrified that day and she is terrified today that he knows where she lives, and that he's demonstrated he will come over at any day or night and that he will enter and injure her or people that she is with on a whim."
"Before this attack he had driven by her home the night before. He was keeping tabs on her and on this evening or early in the morning, he flew into fit of rage when he saw her with somebody else. This victim does report that he returned a key to her home from the police, but he had access to her home that they at one point shared, and has the ability to get back in. He will do anything to enter her home if he feels it's necessary. The state does recommend that if he's released, it'd be only to pretrial supervision that he be outfitted with a GPS unit and submit to drug and alcohol testing. The victims do believe that this could have been fueled by methamphetamine. And I do believe that this defendant has some access to money and an ability to post, so I don't believe that this is an excessively high bail in this circumstance.”
The public defender asked the judge for a lower bond, but he refused.
Judge Beal set bond at $100,000 and added these comments, addressing Houk who was appearing from the Missoula County Jail.
“In terms of setting a bond, I look at both your history as well as the circumstances of this offense,” began Judge Beal. “You're a remarkably young person, you are 21 years old. In that time you have accumulated a fair number of convictions, especially ones involving alcohol and drugs, and to be up to a second DUI is fairly significant. The allegations here are pretty shocking in terms of the violence involved, so I find that the state's request for $100,000 is more than reasonable. I do set bond in that amount, and if you were able to post that amount you could only be released to pretrial supervision.”
In addition, if released on bond that Houk must stay at least 1,500 feet from the address where the alleged incident took place, and was also ordered to be fitted with a GPS ankle bracelet to ensure that he does not violate the no-contact order.
Houk was then remanded back to the Missoula County Jail.
The information in this article was obtained from sources that are publicly available.
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