Anthony G. Azure pleaded guilty Aug. 6 to burglarizing the Coffee Hound and was also sentenced for buying and taking methamphetamine with an underage girl.
District Judge Daniel Boucher handed down a suspended five-year sentence for the felony offense of endangering the welfare of children. The sentence was part of a plea deal that dismissed a misdemeanor charge of obstructing a peace officer.
Azure also pleaded guilty to felony burglary in connection to a March 24 incident when he broke into the Coffee Hound in Havre by kicking in the back door. He stole an iPad and $350. He told police he drank Black Velvet whiskey, blacked out and robbed the Coffee Hound.
Anthony Azure, Hill County Detention Center booking photo
Five days later — March 29 — Azure tried breaking into 5th Avenue Grind in Havre, causing an estimated $2,200 in damages. In regards to that incident, Azure told police that he’d been drinking alcohol, got thirsty, and needed money to buy something and that’s when he tried to break into the grind. He pleaded guilty to felony criminal mischief in that case on Monday.
As of Sunday, Azure was listed on the Hill County jail roster in a combined $40,585 bond.
Azure’s endangering the welfare of children offense stems from an incident in January:
On Jan. 23, officers were looking for Azure on the 1600 Block of Second Avenue. They were told Azure might be with a 14-year-old who had been missing and had a juvenile pick and hold order, and a man named Joshua Kaupang, who was on probation.
The officers found three people leaving Kaupang’s residence: Brandy Stimson — who had an outstanding warrant — the 14-year-old girl, and Azure. Officers approached the trio.
The girl, who’d been told to sit on a nearby ledge, did not listen and began pacing. And while Stimson was being arrested on the warrant, the girl “began resisting.” An officer took the girl to the ground to try and get her under control. While this was happening, Azure ran and disobeyed officers’ commands to stop.
Officers found Azure later and arrested him for an obstructing a peace officer charge. The girl was transported to Northern Montana Hospital and then to the youth detention center in Great Falls.
On Jan. 26, a Havre Police Department detective interviewed the girl.
She told him the methamphetamine that was detected in her system on the day of her arrest did not come from Stimson or Azure, but someone else. She said she didn’t want to say who because she didn’t want to “snitch” on anyone, she said.
The girl also told the detective she and Azure were dating, “but only held hands.”
Like Azure, Stimson was also charged with felony endangering the welfare of children for buying and taking meth with the girl. That charge was dismissed June 26 “in the interests of justice,” according to the motion to dismiss information document filed by then-Deputy Attorney Karen Alley. The dismissal was part of a resolution with Stimson in connection with an incident in which she broke into Tortilla Junction.
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