Castonguay case headed to trial

WALLACE — After months of back and forth, the case against accused thief Corey Castonguay will be headed to a jury trial following a recent hearing.

Castonguay appeared before Judge Barbara Duggan earlier this week where he was scheduled for a change of plea hearing, however, he decided against entering a guilty plea despite reportedly having a plea agreement with the state in place.

Castonguay was arrested in Pinehurst in June 2022 and subsequently charged with multiple counts of grand theft, unlawful possession of a firearm, possession of a controlled substance and other drug-related charges — the arrest was the focus of a search warrant that was served by a multi-jurisdictional task force that included the Pinehurst Police Department (PPD), Shoshone County Sheriff's Office and Detectives from the Kootenai County Sheriff's Office (KCSO).

The detectives obtained the search warrant based on investigations that began in Kootenai County and then requested assistance from our local agencies to serve the warrant.

During its execution, PPD and KCSO collected items tied to multiple thefts from surrounding states – including some that specifically led them to further investigate Castonguay.

Already a convicted felon, Castonguay was facing multiple felony charges in Kootenai County, including additional grand theft charges, burglary charges, as well as fraud.

Castonguay accepted a deal in Kootenai County where he plead guilty to burglary, and the fraud and grand theft charges were dismissed. For his admission of guilt, he was sentenced to five years, including three fixed — however, the judge retained jurisdiction in the case.

According to Shoshone County Deputy Prosecutor Britney Jacobs, a global resolution had been discussed in Mr. Castonguay’s case, which could’ve potentially allowed for the state to unify their sentence with that of the case from Kootenai County — but on Monday, Castonguay decided not to accept the offer and the case will now head to a jury trial.

Since he did plea to a felony charge in Kootenai County, Castonguay completed a pre-sentence investigation (PSI) which was filed within that case. To save taxpayer resources and not duplicate the PSI process, the parties stipulated, and the judge signed an order, releasing that document to the parties in the Shoshone County case to utilize in the state’s sentencing recommendations to the court.

This may not be of any consequence though, since the case is not proceeding to sentencing at this time.

Castonguay is facing 27 different charges in Shoshone County, and should he be found guilty, he could face up to five years in prison and $5,000 in fines for each of the firearms charges, a potential of 20 years and $10,000 in fines for each grand theft charge, and up to one year and $1,000 for the most severe of the three drug charges.

A jury trial has been scheduled for Feb. 8.