[Update]US: Montana man, 53, pleads guilty to ‘negligent endangerment’ for allegedly infecting former male partner with HIV, gets one year in jail with nine months suspended

RED LODGE – A Joliet man recently sentenced for shooting at officers — and acquitted of animal cruelty — has pleaded guilty to an amended charge for infecting his former partner with HIV, according to the Carbon County Attorney’s office. As part of a plea agreement, X, 53, pleaded guilty earlier this month to a misdemeanor count of negligent endangerment, reduced from a felony count of criminal endangerment, Carbon County Attorney Alex Nixon said Monday.

The victim in the case, who according to court records had a three-year relationship with X, didn’t want to go to trial, Nixon said. It was alleged that X knew he was infected with the HIV virus and engaged in a three-year sexual relationship with a man without disclosing his medical condition. The man, identified in court records only by the initials T.V., told investigators that he did not have the virus that causes AIDS before his relationship with X but later tested positive for the disease.

Justice Court Judge Kevin Nichols gave X a sentence of one year in jail with nine months suspended. The sentence will run concurrent to prison time a judge gave X in November for shooting at law enforcement officers who responded to his property after he shot and killed 55 sled dogs in July 2011, according to court records.

A jury convicted Northcutt last April of three counts of assault on a peace officer stemming from the incident, but found him not guilty of aggravated animal cruelty for shooting the dogs. For the first assault conviction, District Judge Loren Tucker sentenced X to 10 years with the Department of Corrections, with five years suspended. The second count netted X a concurrent 10-year suspended sentence. Tucker handed down a consecutive 10-year suspended sentence for the third charge.

A Joliet man accused of infecting his unsuspecting partner with HIV denied a felony endangerment charge Wednesday in Carbon County District Court. X, 52, pleaded not guilty to the criminal count during arraignment before Judge Blair Jones. The charge alleges that X failed to disclose his medical condition to a man identified in court records as T.V., who later contracted HIV. X and T.V. had a three-year sexual relationship, according to court records.

The criminal charge against Northcutt is uncommon in Montana, Carbon County Attorney Alex Nixon said, but similar cases have been filed in other states. Nixon said he understands that some Montana prosecutors may have filed similar charges in sexual-assault cases in which the victim contracted a sexually transmitted disease. It is unclear, Nixon said, if there is a prior case in Montana involving transmission of the virus that causes AIDS.

A Joliet man scheduled for trial later this month on charges that he shot at two officers and then killed 55 sled dogs is facing a new allegation that he infected his unsuspecting partner with the HIV virus. X, 52, has recently been charged in Carbon County District Court with felony criminal endangerment.