Jury clears bounty hunter for role in Spokane motel standoff

A bounty hunter was cleared of wrongdoing Monday after a nine-day trial over his role in apprehending two people at a Spokane motel in 2016.

A jury cleared Shaun Beveridge of first-degree burglary, second-degree assault and unlawful imprisonment. Prosecutors also had sought a sentence enhancement for his use of a firearm.

Beveridge, 34, of Post Falls, was one of four bounty hunters involved in the standoff at the Econo Lodge motel at 1503 S. Rustle Road, near the Finch Arboretum in west Spokane.

After Spokane police arrived and then left the motel in the early hours of Sept. 14, 2016, the bounty hunters smashed a motel window, gassed the room’s occupants and held them at gunpoint. The bounty hunters apprehended Shanda Hanson, who had jumped bail in Kootenai County, and a man who was with her in the motel room, Justin Jordan.

Beveridge’s attorney, Doug Phelps, said Hanson and Jordan had stolen guns from the person who cosigned Hanson’s bail bond.

Two of the other bounty hunters, Reed Alefteras, 24, and Robert Elder, 31, pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of criminal mischief in deals with prosecutors last month. Alefteras is in prison for robbery and assault convictions from an unrelated July 2016 incident near Gonzaga University.

The fourth bondsman, Christopher Petrie, 37, was not formally charged for his role in the motel incident.

Phelps said his client was only doing his job, and he has argued that Spokane police should have arrested Hanson and Jordan that night in 2016.

“I think the city needs to review their policies in regards to bail bondsmen,” Phelps said.

Reporter Jonathan Glover contributed to this report.