A Great Falls woman who accidentally shot and killed her husband was sentenced to five years with the Department of Corrections with a recommendation to an alcohol and drug treatment program.
Bette Jo White shot her husband and best friend of 29 years Ronald Lynn White in the head, while their car was stopped on the side of Highwood Road on Feb. 21. The couple would frequently drive around country roads and shoot at ground squirrels.
Sitting in the passenger seat, White said she was aiming a handgun at a coyote out of her husband’s driver’s side window. White told the court that she had smoked marijuana and taken prescription drugs before the shooting.
“How fast it happened… I can’t tell you exactly what happened,” White testified. “I went to give him the gun and the gun went off and his head hit the steering wheel.”
As part of a plea agreement, prosecutors recommended a 10-year suspended sentence for felony criminal en-dangerment. The defense asked that her sentence be deferred and therefore could be erased eventually from her record.
District Judge Dirk Sandefur said while he empathized with her, the crime needed to have a consequence.
After completing a three-month treatment program in Billings, it will be up to the Department of Corrections to decide if White will be placed in pre-release or in supervised release.
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