Moses Lake man sentenced for gun-pointing incident
MOSES LAKE — A Moses Lake man was sentenced for pointing a gun at another person after an argument broke out at his Moses Lake residence.
Nicholas Herbert, 21, of Moses Lake, pleaded guilty to second-degree assault. Grant County Superior Court Judge David Estudillo followed a joint recommendation between Deputy Prosecutor Kevin McCrae and defense attorney Stephen Kozer and sentenced Herbert to six months of confinement. Another charge of second-degree assault was dropped in a plea agreement between McCrae and Kozer.
On Nov. 15, 2016 Herbert contacted MACC Dispatch claiming his female roommate was hitting him outside of their Viewmont Drive Southeast residence in Moses Lake. As a Grant County Sheriff’s Office deputy was responding, MACC Dispatch received a call from a woman who stated her roommate, Herbert, assaulted her and she was hiding from him in their Viewmont Drive residence. She advised Herbert placed a gun at the end of the driveway before deputies arrived, according to police records.
A deputy arrived at the scene and contacted Herbert, who was standing in the driveway with a paper towel sticking out of his nose. The deputy recovered the pistol at the end of the driveway and placed it into safekeeping.
Herbert claimed his roommate had friends over to their house and an argument broke out over differing political views. He said he asked a man to leave and his roommate got upset and they started arguing. He said his roommate punched him and gave him a bloody nose. Herbert’s roommate offered a different story, stating one of her friends scratched some fingernail polish off her fingernail and Herbert told the man to not touch her like that.
“During the exchange of words, Nicholas Herbert pointed a gun at (his roommate’s male friend) and told him to get out of the house,” wrote a deputy.
Herbert got into a physical altercation with his roommate and pushed her onto the ground, putting his hands around her neck. A male witness claimed Herbert was poking and bothering the victim, so he told him to leave her alone. Herbert allegedly grabbed his pistol, put a magazine into it and “racked a round” into the chamber before pointing the gun at him.
Herbert told the deputy the two victims were working against him and made up the story about him pointing a gun at them.
“Nicholas Herbert did not provide much detail while speaking with me and just said he would never hit a woman or point a gun at anyone,” wrote a deputy.
Richard Byrd can be reached via email at city@columbiabasinherald.com.
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