GREAT FALLS — A Cascade County courtroom saw movement in a violent assault case that’s been pending for more than a year.
Shaun Deberry, one of three people charged in the 2024 attack that left a Great Falls man with life-changing brain injuries, appeared for a change of plea hearing.
Watch the video here:
Deberry, who was 19 years old at the time of the assault, had been charged with accountability for attempted deliberate homicide for his role in the September 2024 assault on Jake Kraus.
On Wednesday, he pleaded guilty to accountability to robbery as part of a plea agreement.
The assault left Kraus with a traumatic brain injury, including damage to his frontal lobe that impacts his behavior, memory, and emotions. His wife, Christine Kraus, was present at the hearing.
She says, “Jake can't be here due to the amount of mental distress this has caused him, so I show up to support that, to be here for my husband because he can't be, because of what they've done to him.”
Deberry is one of three people charged in the case.
Ethanel Pherigo, also nineteen at the time of the assault, also has signed a plea agreement, pleading guilty to robbery in exchange for prosecutors dropping an aggravated assault charge.
Prosecutors are recommending 40 years Montana State Prison. A sentencing hearing has been scheduled for October.
The third defendant, Jesse James Edwards Jr, 14 at the time of the assault, was charged as an adult with attempted deliberate homicide.
According to the Cascade County Clerk of Court and recent court documents, Edwards’ case remains in district court on charges of attempted deliberate homicide.
An earlier hearing this summer to consider moving his case back to youth court was postponed, and Edwards is scheduled to appear for a status hearing on October 22nd.
