Teens Charged With Robbery Boy Whose Mother Stabbed His Attacker Among Accused

Tristan Beeman, whose mother claimed she was protecting him by stabbing a teenager in a 1996 brawl, was charged with first-degree robbery on Monday.

A judge ordered the former East Valley High School football and wrestling standout held on $25,000 bond. He is accused of robbing a man for $40 and a few ounces of methamphetamine.

Two of Beeman’s friends - Caleb Sanford and Nicholas Granly - also have been charged with firstdegree robbery and are being held on $30,000 bond each. Both spent time on East Valley’s honor roll and both have juvenile criminal records.

The three 19-year-olds are accused of robbing Anthony Montagnino on Sunday.

According to Sanford, Beeman and Granly showed up early that morning at his apartment with a shotgun and wanted drugs. Another friend introduced them to Montagnino, an upstairs neighbor, Sanford said during an interview from the Spokane County Jail.

“I went up just to be a comfort to Anthony,” said Sanford, who knew the man. “I was behind Tristan, and as we went in I looked behind me and Nick had a shotgun.”

Montagnino had his own shotgun, but Granly and Beeman attacked him, Sanford said.

“I was pretty much stunned,” Sanford said.

“I was just a witness, I just watched it all.”

Montagnino told officers he was attacked by all three.

Sanford said Beeman took Montagnino’s shotgun and went to get Montagnino’s wife, who was in another room. When Beeman opened the door, she had a shotgun too, Sanford said.

Sanford said he returned to his apartment. Five minutes later, Granly and Beeman arrived and hid the shotgun, the drugs and money.

“I looked out the windows and saw cops all over the place,” Sanford said. “I knew everyone was going to be in big trouble.”

Beeman was part of a controversy in 1996 when his mother Karen Beeman admitted stabbing University High School student Tim Buchanan three times to protect her son.

The two boys were fighting at the Spokane Interstate Fair in September of that year.

Sheriff’s deputies did not arrest Karen Beeman in the stabbing, sparking protests by Buchanan, his family and civil rights groups who claimed Beeman would have been arrested if she was black and Buchanan was white.

A month after the stabbing, about 100 people demonstrated in front of the Public Safety Building, demanding that the prosecutor’s office charge Beeman. The sheriff’s department reopened the case in November of 1996, and the FBI also investigated, but Beeman never was charged.

Buchanan has filed a citizen’s complaint asking a District Court judge to charge Beeman with assault, reckless endangerment, obstructing a law enforcement officer and making false statements to authorities.

Tristan Beeman, who has a juvenile record of theft and burglary, was never charged in the stabbing.

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