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<\/p>\nBOZEMAN \u2014 A Montana judge sentenced a 39-year-old man to 15 years in prison Friday for his role in a deadly crash and subsequent cover-up.<\/p>\n
Gerald Lee Johnson Jr. received the sentence after a Gallatin County jury convicted him in June on two felonies stemming from a 2023 collision that killed a Manhattan man.<\/p>\n
According to Gallatin County Justice Court charging documents on Aug. 14, 2023, at approximately 10:13 PM on Sunday, August 6, a Montana Highway Patrol officer was dispatched to a crash involving a pickup truck and motorcycle at the intersection of Frontage Rd and Thorpe Rd. When the officer arrived, the pickup truck had reportedly already fled the scene.<\/p>\n
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MTN NEWS<\/p>\n
Gerald Johnson Jr, and Hollie Kittle were both seen in Gallatin County Justice Court on Aug. 14, 2023.<\/p>\n
The motorcyclist, later identified as 28-year-old Hunter Berry of Manhattan, was transported to Bozeman Deaconess Hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries.<\/p>\n
On August 7, 2023, MHP requested the public\u2019s help locating the pickup truck. A person with ACME storage facility in Belgrade reportedly provided footage of a pickup truck matching the description of the one involved in the crash. The driver of the pickup truck was identified as Hollie Kittle. An ACME storage representative described Kittle as a \u201cproblem tenant\u201d.<\/p>\n
RELATED: Suspects in fatal hit-and-run near Belgrade charged with Negligent Homicide<\/a><\/p>\n According to charging documents, Johnson was arrested on a warrant and told officers in an interview that Kittle drove the vehicle until the I-90 overpass on Thorpe Rd, then he switched into the driver\u2019s seat. Johnson reportedly told officers he was driving when the crash occurred with the motorcyclist.<\/p>\n Prosecutors said Johnson failed to yield the right of way, causing his truck to crash into a motorcycle Berry was driving. Johnson then left the scene without stopping to help or provide any information. <\/p>\n The jury found Johnson guilty of tampering with evidence and leaving the scene of a crash involving death. He was found not guilty of negligent homicide.<\/p>\n Judge Rienne McElyea heard statements from Berry’s family before handing down the sentence. She gave Johnson 10 years for the tampering charge, with 2 years suspended, and an additional 7 years for leaving the scene. The judge ordered the sentences to run consecutively, bringing his total time behind bars to 15 years.<\/p>\n The Gallatin County Attorney said the case has always been about accountability and that the sentence reflects the seriousness of the crimes.<\/p>\n Johnson will be transferred to the Montana Department of Corrections to begin serving his sentence.<\/p>\n Related: This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOZEMAN \u2014 A Montana judge sentenced a 39-year-old man to 15 years in prison Friday for his role…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":327031,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[123051,123052,123049,123047,123048,123055,123053,75,84,83,123054,123050,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-327030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-deadly-crash-montana","tag-evidence-tampering","tag-gallatin-county","tag-gerald-lee-johnson-jr","tag-hunter-berry","tag-judge-rienne-mcelyea","tag-leaving-scene-of-crash","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-montana-department-of-corrections","tag-montana-sentencing","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Montana Highway Patrol locates vehicle in fatal hit-and-run near Belgrade<\/a>
Victim who died on motorcycle in hit-and-run near Belgrade identified; MHP seeks persons of interest<\/a><\/p>\n