Chamberlain pleads not guilty to assault

NEWPORT – A 31-year-old man who was initially arrested for second degree attempted murder was not charged with that when he appeared in court for arraignment Thursday, Nov. 13.

Instead Martin Gardener Chamberlain pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree assault with a deadly weapon and an alternative charge of second-degree assault. Chamberlain also pleaded not guilty to charges of unlawful firearm possession and a protection order violation when he appeared before Pend Oreille County Superior Court Judge Lech Radzimski. He is in jail, held in lieu of a $250,000 bail.

Defense attorney Carson Van Valkenburg reserved argument on the bail.

Because of an error in the Pend Oreille County Sheriff’s Daily Press Documents, he was listed as being arrested for “MURDER 2 FURTHER CRM, Friday,” Oct. 31, along with charges of unlawful possession of a firearm and assault in the second degree. It was unclear what “FURTHER CRM” referred to.

A Miner news story Nov. 5 clarified that he was arrested for attempted second degree murder, but it was not corrected in the Police Reports.

According to a statement of probable cause, a woman called dispatch Oct. 31and report that she was shot at by her husband, Chamberlain.

When two Pend Oreille County Sheriff’s deputies arrived to meet her in Ione, she said Chamberlain had rammed her pickup with his jeep after an argument and shot at her. She said after she heard him say something about shooting her, she sped away in her truck. She said didn’t see him produce a weapon or shoot but heard a sound she said sounded like two board clapping together.

A deputy asked her about the shot, and she showed him what appeared to the deputies to be a bullet hole in the truck and another hole that appeared to be an exit hole, with fresh ripping in the truck seat. After cutting the seat, they found what appeared to them to be a “discharged round.”

She also showed text messages allegedly from Chamberlain, that said if she didn’t leave right now that he would shoot her truck.

A Stevens County deputy detained Chamberlain at a store in Colville, because of a Pend Oreille County beon- the-lookout notification. When Pend Oreille County deputies arrived to take Chamberlain into custody, they found .22 caliber magnum ammunition in his vehicle. Since Chamberlain has a felony conviction, that resulted in the unlawful possession of a firearm charge.

The assault charges were for allegedly ramming her truck with his vehicle, the deadly weapon.