Teen sentenced in pepper-spray case

SANDPOINT – A North Idaho teenager charged in a pepper-spray attack on a 2-month-old infant has pleaded guilty to disturbing the peace and has been sentenced to two days on a county work crew.

Jordanna L. Gantenbein, 16, of Sagle, had been charged with three counts of misdemeanor battery for allegedly spraying the child, the child’s grandmother and the child’s aunt during an altercation in a Ponderay Wal-Mart just east of Sandpoint. The baby was treated and released at a local hospital following the May 2 incident, which prompted the evacuation and brief closure of the store.

Gantenbein entered an “Alford plea” during a pretrial hearing in juvenile court last month and was sentenced this week by Bonner County Magistrate Barbara Buchanan to the county work program and a $20 fine.

Under the agreement, Gantenbein conceded she would be convicted if the case went to trial. In exchange for the plea, prosecutors reduced one battery charge to disturbing the peace and dismissed the two remaining charges.

Gantenbein’s mother, 36-year-old Lorlie M. Gantenbein, has been charged with felony injury to a child in the case after witnesses claimed she took the pepper spray canister from her daughter and sprayed it directly at the child. Lorlie Gantenbein has said that she and her daughter discharged the spray in self-defense, did not aim at the child and that the grandmother “ran through the fog with the baby.” She has pleaded not guilty; a four-day jury trial is scheduled for Sept. 12 in 1st District Court.