County files felony assault charge against Stidham

A Havre woman arrested for attempted murder now faces a series of formal charges, all lesser than the original arrest charge.

The Hill County Attorney Friday charged Cindy Stidham, 47, with assault with a weapon, a felony, along with two counts of partner or family member assault, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia, all misdemeanors.

Judge Dan Boucher ordered Stidham held on $50,000 bond, a $25,000 reduction in the original bond ordered by Havre City Judge Margaret Hencz on the attempted deliberate homicide charge and family assault charges.

Stidham was in the Hill County jail this morning on the $50,000 bond.

The county attorney requested bond be set at $100,000.

According to documents filed with the charges, Havre police officers responded to a report of a fight on the 1400 Block of 1st Street at 9:38 a.m. June 20.

Officers found Randy Stidham, who said his estranged wife, Cindy Stidham, had entered his business, Stidham Computers and Security, while he was speaking on the telephone. She grabbed the phone from him and ran toward the residence part of the building, he said.

When he grabbed her to try to get the phone back, she said she was going to kill him and his girlfriend, Randy Stidham said.

He said that she reached into her pocket, pulled out a .22 caliber pistol that belonged to him, then cocked it and pointed it at him. He knocked it out of her hands, he said.

He called his daughters, one of whom grabbed the phone and the other grabbed the gun and ran out into the residence, he said.

He said Cindy Stidham continued to struggle with them, and scratched him and one of the daughters. He pushed her and she fell on the ground, and he and his daughters went into the residence and he eventually was able to get the door to the residence closed.

He said she tried to keep him from closing the door, but eventually got into the vehicle of her friend who brought her that morning and left.

He also said he noticed, when he looked at the gun, that it had jammed. He told officers he was glad Cindy Stidham had not grabbed his 9 mm pistol because it does not jam and he would have been shot.

A Havre police officer and Hill County sheriff’s deputy later located Stidham at her North Havre residence, the document said.

She told the officers she asked her husband to give her a ride to see a doctor, and he said he would think about it. She said when she heard he had just left his girlfriend’s house, she went to talk to him about it. Randy Stidham would not let her in and shoved her, causing her to fall to the ground, Cindy Stidham said.

She said the pistol must have fallen out of her car when she got out, adding that Randy Stidham took all of the guns that are registered to her. She also said she does not even know how to use a gun.

While she was being arrested, officers found a pack of cigarettes, a marijuana joint and several pieces of drug paraphernalia.