Kane Gott of Mountain Home was sentenced to five years probation during a session of Baxter County Circuit Court Thursday after changing his plea to guilty on aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of a minor charges stemming from a domestic situation which turned violent.
The events leading to the 44-year-old Gott’s arrest began on the afternoon of July 7th last year when Baxter County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a call for help from a residence on Delicious Lane. The caller was Gott’s wife. She reported that her husband had consumed alcohol and a substantial amount of prescription medication and that he had beaten and abused her.
Gott’s wife said that her husband has also threatened to kill any law officer who came to the residence. The wife told officers that she believed her husband’s goal was to “create enough fear and apprehension” in her that she would call the sheriff’s office, allowing her husband to force a gun battle with law officers and commit what is referred to as “suicide by cop”.
The first responding deputy reported that she could see Gott through a window in the residence and that he was holding an undetermined type of weapon in his hand.
The deputy said that Gott’s wife was safely out of the residence and that Gott had barricaded himself in the house. He was reported to be breaking windows out of the house and shooting what appeared to be a pellet gun out of windows.
It was determined that the couple’s 12-year-old child was hiding in a bedroom in the residence.
After other deputies arrived, Gott was eventually apprehended with the use of a stun gun.
Gott’s wife said the incident began when the couple was invited to go to the lake by another male. She told officers that her husband appeared willing to go on the outing, but then “snapped and flew into a rage”. The wife reported that Gott went outside and shot the windows out of a truck that was parked outside the residence and cut the tires on the vehicle. He went back into the house and brandished knives, pellet guns and a shovel at his wife, making verbal threats to kill her. He also tried to kill a pet bird in the living room, but his wife was able to deflect the pellet with a shirt.
The deputies reported that the two pellet handguns in the residence could only be distinguished from actual firearms by careful and close inspection.
14th Judicial District Prosecutor David Ethredge told the court Thursday that Gott’s plea deal was offered to him with the permission of the victim.
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