From the Courts - State District Court: Man sentenced to house arrest on amended DUI charge

Russell Lee Doney was sentenced in state District Court in Havre to house arrest and probation on a misdemeanor count of aggravated DUI, amended from a felony charge of criminal child endangerment for driving while intoxicated with a child in the car,

Doney was charged with the felony March 18 when officers found him driving with middle school-aged children in the vehicle after he had been smoking marijuana.

The charge was amended to the misdemeanor aggravated DUI July 21.

State District Judge Kaydee Snipes Ruiz accepted his guilty plea to the misdemeanor Sept. 14, sentencing him to 365 days in jail with four days credited and 320 suspended. She ordered him to serve 41 days under house arrest and fined him $2,500 to be suspended on completion of the house arrest.

Snipes Ruiz ordered Doney to obtain a chemical dependency evaluation and follow the recommendations in the evaluation.