McLees pleads guilty to end trial
02/27/02
By KATHLEEN O'TOOLE Chronicle Staff Writer
In the middle of his own trial, Travis Allan McLees pleaded guilty
Tuesday to three out of four felony charges against him in the
kidnapping and sexual assault of a 9-year-old Belgrade girl and the
attempted kidnapping of a 12-year-old Gallatin County girl on
Father's Day last year.

Just before the girls were to testify against him, McLees, 25, of
Three Forks, pleaded guilty to criminal endangerment, for injecting
the 9-year-old girl with methamphetamines, and aggravated
burglary, for breaking into the 12-year-old girl's home.

A second aggravated burglary charge was amended to felony
burglary, indicating that McLees entered the home with the intent
to kidnap the 9-year-old girl, but did not mean to harm her. He
also pleaded guilty to that charge.

McLees pleaded guilty to sexual assault, aggravated kidnapping
and assault with a weapon in connection with the case on Dec. 13.

Only one charge remains — the attempted burglary of a home in
the Covered Wagon trailer park off of North 17th Avenue on the
same morning of the attacks, an hour and a half before McLees
broke into the 12-year-old's home.

Gallatin County Attorney Marty Lambert said he would not dismiss
the charge because "that was a serious thing that happened to
(the resident) and the threat to his wife and children ... (McLees)
has to be held responsible for his actions. You don't get free
crimes here."

But McLees' attorney, William Bartlett, said Lambert failed to
charge McLees properly because the charge does not specify
what crime McLees planned to commit after breaking into the
home — which is an element of a burglary charge that must be
stated and proven, Bartlett says.

Bartlett and Lambert will argue the attempted burglary issue in
written briefs due at the end of March. Judge Mark Guenther will
rule on the charge after reading the briefs.

McLees, by his own admissions, is now guilty of six felony charges.
Guenther revoked any possibility of bail and set sentencing for
April 25.

The parents of the 12-year-old, who sat in court directly behind
McLees as he entered his guilty pleas were frustrated with the
development.

"If he wanted to save our children from suffering, he could have
done that on June 17," the mother said. The father added, "or he
could have pled guilty to all of the charges."

The parents of the 9-year-old girl had no comment after the trial.

McLees' father, Scott McLees, also watched the trial. He admitted
that he didn't want to sit through this trial and hear all the bad
things said about his son. For a long time, he said he didn't believe
that his son was capable of what prosecutors accused.

"My mind couldn't come to grips with that ... until I found out he
was on methamphetamines. He was at home, living with me, trying
to get a grip on things again. I really thought he was clean," Scott
McLees said, adding that his son had a drug problem for several
years and was constantly in trouble.

"Of course, I don't want to see my son get sent up. He's made a
lot of mistakes that he's got to be held accountable for. In the same
respect, my whole goal is to make sure he didn't spend the rest of
his life in prison. I pray he doesn't," Scott McLees said.

Kathleen O'Toole is at kotoole@dailychronicle.com

 

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