Eureka man gets 30-year term for killing father

A Eureka man who pleaded guilty to shooting and killing his father during an incident in a remote part of Lincoln County more than two years ago was sentenced Tuesday in district court to 30 years in the Montana State Prison.

Joshua Joseph Sauls, 26, the son of the victim John Sauls, pleaded guilty to an amended count of mitigated deliberate homicide May 13 in front of District Judge Matt Cuffe.

Sauls was first charged with deliberate homicide after investigators with the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office said he fired three rounds from a .45 caliber handgun into the back of 64-year-old John Lewis Sauls’ head on May 30, 2022, after both men argued about the alleged molestation of Joshua’s sister.

The amended information indicated the offense occurred while Sauls, “was under the influence of extreme mental or emotional stress for which there is reasonable explanation or excuse.”

Sauls avoided a harsher prison term. State prosecutor Thorin Geis, acting as a special deputy county attorney, sought a 40-year sentence with no time suspended.

“I appreciate the family’s statements, but he’s only 26 and this is his fourth lifetime felony and second violent felony,” Geist said. “He admitted to putting three bullets in his father’s head and leaving him on the side of the road.”

Veteran attorney Maury Solomon, who served as Sauls’ public defender, argued for a 40-year sentence with 20 suspended.

“Josh is something of an anomaly,” Solomon said. “He had his father lording over the family with religious expectations, but it is his dad’s background is what led Josh to act. It explains why Josh lost faith in his father and he exploded.”

During Tuesday’s hearing, presided over by Cuffe, emotional testimony was heard from Sauls, his mother, his sister and his former wife. They all pleaded for a sentence that would give Sauls a chance at parole so he could return to be a part of their family.

Michele Sauls, the wife of the deceased and mother of Joshua, spoke first, pleading for Cuffe to show her son a degree of mercy.

“I pray you can find it in your heart to give him a chance to have a productive life,” Michele said. “Joshua is a creative, thoughtful person. He was a honor roll student through junior high.”

She spoke about how she met John Sauls and how they came to northwest Montana.

“John was my true love since meeting him when I was 15 years old in Florida. He was an iron worker before injuring his back when he was 29,” she said.

The couple was married in a Mormon church when she was 24 years old in 1989. She told of how he was one of the first volunteers to work at the Garden of 1,000 Buddhas in Arlee in 2000.

But she also shared how her husband became a “different person over the last few years.”

In a court document filed by county Det. Duane Rhodes, he shared a conversation he had with Michele that painted a less flattering portrait of the victim.

According to Rhodes’ account of what Michele Sauls told him, when Joshua’s younger sister was 8 years old, John allowed the child to run around the home wearing only her panties. He would sniff her neck and when he heard other people coming, he would have the child put clothes on. To Michele’s knowledge, that was the extent of the molestation.

She also told the investigator that Joshua and John Sauls did some “acid” before leaving the home on May 30.

When Sauls’ sister testified, she cried and sobbed while some of her words were unintelligible. Solomon gently asked her about a conversation she never got to have with Joshua before the deadly shooting.

“You told Det. Rhodes about the rumors of your dark past with John (Sauls) and how you were best of friends with Joshua, but how you also never got a chance to speak with him about what happened,” Solomon said.

“When my dad touched me as a kid, he put me in a difficult position,” she said. “I wasn’t afraid of my dad, but it startled me and it caught me off guard. It scared me and it didn’t feel right. I told him to stop and he did. But it didn’t seem right to hate him for the rest of our lives.”

The woman, who is now married and a mother, shared other accounts of her time growing up around her dad.

“My dad reprimanded me harshly when I tried to change Jacob (Sauls') diaper when I was 7 or 8 years old,” she said. “I don’t know if my dad was touched as a child. No one knew about it until I started dating Jed when I was 16.”

Jacob Sauls is Josh's older brother.

Their sister also talked about her dad’s drug use.

“He took all kinds of drugs, but once he started using meth, things really changed,” she said. “He said they were giving him a way to God.”

Her words indicated the conflicted relationship she had with her father.

“He was healthier and cleaner unlike the last two years of his life. He was mean and deceitful and it was hard for me because he taught us to look to him for guidance, to look up to him.

“But I know he wants Josh to be able to be with us and I don’t want to lose Josh forever,” she said.

Hayley Trosello, a woman who was married to Joshua Sauls, also spoke on his behalf after prompting by Solomon. She spoke of them dealing with their addictions.

“You worked through sobriety with Josh and while this is not typically recommended, you had the OK from supervising officers and you had sobriety together for 2 1/2 years,” Solomon said.

“Josh was a hard worker and he was respectful to my mom and stepdad,” Trosello said. “Josh is one of the greatest humans I’ve ever known. He made a huge mistake, but he did what he thought he had to do to protect those he loved.

“I left because I couldn’t have my kids in that environment, but I’m begging you to let him be the productive person he can be.”

However, in Michele Sauls’ statement to Det. Rhodes, she said Joshua was married, then divorced and ended up homeless in Nevada. She said John and Joshua’s sister recently traveled to Nevada and brought him home. Josh soon found out about the alleged molestation and “was very angry about it.”

According to court documents and testimony during the May 13 plea hearing, the argument began when the younger Sauls confronted John over rumors he heard about his dad being “sexually inappropriate with my sister.”

When public defender Ryan Hennen, who was co-counsel with Solomon, performed the allocution with Sauls, the man became emotional while describing his relationship with his father and the day’s events that ended in John Sauls’ death.

“I loved my father more than anything in the world,” Joshua Sauls said. “He was my best friend, one of the most important people in my life.”

The younger Sauls heard allegations about his dad’s behavior toward his daughter, Josh’s sister. While they drove, the younger Sauls asked his dad about the alleged behavior with his sister.

“I didn’t want to believe it, but when I asked him, he showed no remorse. He said he didn’t owe anyone an apology for what he did,” Joshua Sauls said. 

He further said his dad told him if he wanted to discuss it further, “go ask your mother because she had known for a long time.”

Sauls testified he, “felt shattered and betrayed and it led to a blind rage.”

Sauls said things got heated while they drove and his dad struck him in the face and tried to grab the steering wheel.

“When we stopped, Dad got out, and I saw his gun on the seat. In a fit of anger, I shot him in the back of the head and fired off two more shots,” Sauls said, weeping as he spoke.

“I cried, smoked a bit and then left,” Sauls said.

Following the homicide, Sauls was on the run from local law enforcement for nearly a month before being arrested by Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office deputies on June 28, 2022, on a carjacking charge. Court documents indicate he was arrested for evading law enforcement and injuries occurred during the incident.

According to a court document filed Feb. 6, 2023, the Montana State Crime Lab collected DNA samples from cigarette butts found at the crime scene. A lab report indicated DNA on the cigarette butts did not belong to the victim, John Sauls, but was 222 million times more likely to have come from his biological child.

In the charging document, the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office received a report on Tuesday, May 31, of a dead man, later identified as John Lewis Sauls, on Thirsty Lake Road, about 7.5 miles up Meadow Creek Road.

On Wednesday, June 1, Detective Rhodes spoke to John Sauls’ wife, the mother of Joshua Sauls. She said the last time she saw her husband was on Monday, May 30. She said Joshua Sauls was also living in the home and was angry at John due to a “family crisis” that had occurred.

According to an application for a search warrant in the case, the family crisis involved the recent discovery of an alleged molestation of a family member by John Sauls about 20 years ago.

John Sauls’ wife also told investigators that Joshua Sauls got divorced and ended up homeless in Nevada. Family members then brought him back to the home in Eureka.

John Sauls’ wife also said that on Monday, May 30, Joshua and John did some “acid” and left the home in a black Chevy Monte Carlo. She also said that John Sauls had encouraged the children to take drugs and that he is a “junkie” and doesn’t take care of himself.

Joshua Sauls had other run-ins with law enforcement in the past. According to court documents, he was accused of fleeing from police after an attempted traffic stop in the Eureka area in November 2017. Police said he ditched the car. Officers later found baggies with a substance that tested positive for methamphetamine. Officers also reported finding two guns, several knives, two hatchets, a leather club and four boxes of ammunition.

In the charging document in the 2017 case, filed by Heintz, a police officer in Eureka at the time, he reported assisting Lincoln County Detective Nate Scofield with a traffic stop in 2014 involving Joshua Sauls. Scofield said he found marijuana and drug paraphernalia in the vehicle which Sauls allegedly said belonged to him.