Restaurant owner sentenced in assault case

The owner of a local restaurant was sentenced Oct. 22 on assault and criminal trespass charges to which he pleaded in Grant County Superior Court.

Juan Moreno, 41, pled guilty to one count of criminal trespass and entered an Alford plea to one count of fourth-degree assault. With an Alford plea a defendant is not pleading guilty to a crime, but believes he would be found guilty if the case were to proceed to trial.

Grand Coulee police had arrested him July 23 after his estranged wife and her boyfriend said he threatened them with a knife and baseball bat, abducted her and tried to run over him.

Court documents obtained by The Star this week show that restraining orders protecting them remain in place.

Police found Sarah Redstar, who is separated from Moreno, walking barefoot on the hot pavement of SR-155 at Snyder Road.

She and her live-in boyfriend, Cole Schilling, told police Moreno had burst into Schilling’s home on West Grand Avenue armed with a baseball bat and butcher knife, threatened to kill her, then dragged her out of the house, punched her in the midsection, forced her into his car, and sped off, trying to hit Schilling in the process and taking her to his home on Partello Street in Grand Coulee.

Redstar told police she’d escaped when he put the bat and knife in his trunk.

Moreno told police Redstar had stolen money from his business, The Melody Restaurant, and that she had agreed to clean the restaurant for him. He said he had picked her up for that purpose, but hadn’t threatened anyone.

Moreno maintained in his pleading that he did not remember striking Redstar, but he acknowledged his attorney had shown him witness statements to the contrary.

The court ordered him to take anger management classes and sentenced him to 364 days in jail, with credit for 45 days already served and suspended the remaining 319 days for two years. He has to pay $800 in fines and court costs.

A review hearing was scheduled for Jan. 18, 2019.