Suspect sold SUV after fatal shooting

SANDPOINT — A woman charged in connection with the slaying of a 19-year-old from Hope last year sold one of the vehicles suspected of being used to carry out the crime.

Jennifer Dunnagan Thrasher sold the gray 1997 Jeep Grand Cherokee in late October of 2011, a few weeks after Michael Wyatt Smith was shot to death in Cocolalla.

Bonner County Sheriff’s detectives sought the sport utility vehicle and discovered it was sold to a Sandpoint man for $3,500. A search warrant for the rig was issued by Judge Debra Heise in January, according to court documents.

The man who purchased the SUV from Thrasher said the vehicle was impounded and dismantled in a search for evidence. Unspecified evidence was recovered from the vehicle, according to Michael E. Armbruster.

As a result, detectives advised Armbruster he may not get the vehicle back.

“It was communicated to me that I should not expect to see my jeep (sic) returned to me anytime soon, if ever,” Armbruster said in a Feb. 6 notice of tort claim.

Armbruster is seeking $4,000 in damages from the county for the purchase price of the vehicle and improvements he made after buying it.

Thrasher, 22, is charged as an accessory to Smith’s murder because she withheld knowledge of the killing from law enforcement. Christopher Robin Garlin, also 19, is likewise charged.

Thrasher’s 19-year-old husband, Austin, is accused of shooting Smith with a handgun and is charged with first-degree murder.

The three defendants allegedly invited Smith to party with them last September, but instead took him to a remote area where he was shot in the torso and head. Smith was allegedly killed because he had a relationship with a 16-year-old girl with whom Austin Thrasher also had a relationship, according to probable cause hearing testimony.

Smith’s remains were recovered from a makeshift grave in the Rapid Lightning Creek area earlier this month.

The Thrashers and Garlin were already in custody on a charges of burglarizing a Ponderay pawn shop when they were charged in connection with Smith’s killing. Austin Thrasher’s bail is set at $500,000. Bail for Jennifer Thrasher and Garlin’s is set at $50,000 each.

They remain jailed and day-long preliminary hearings are set for Feb. 24.