Kalispell child killer has April parole hearing
A child killer is up for parole next month.
Former Kalispell resident Richard “Gary” Sweet, 62, was convicted in 1994 of murdering his two children, 8-year-old Anna Leah Sweet, and 6-year-old Erik Samuel Sweet, on Friday, Sept. 8, 1993, in Lincoln County.
According to the Montana Board of Pardons and Parole, Sweet is scheduled to have his hearing Tuesday, April 28.
Previous Daily Inter Lake articles indicate Sweet married his then-wife Janice in April 1982. But marriage troubles arose for the couple. Sweet worked in Alaska and was only a part-time resident of Kalispell.
Sweet had picked up the children from Janice to go camping near the Fisher River in Lincoln County, according to then-Lincoln County Sheriff Ray Nixon. Sweet shot both children in the head twice with a .22-caliber rifle.
He then placed them in their dinosaur sleeping bags inside his own sleeping bag and drove to a remote forested area about 6 miles south of Libby. There he buried his children in a shallow grave.
Sweet’s brother-in-law contacted the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office three days later after Sweet showed up at his Libby home and told him about killing the children and his plan to head to Kalispell, where Janice was living.
Lincoln County authorities called law enforcement agencies in Flathead County and Kalispell to alert them of Sweet possibly coming to the area.
Sweet was found near Kmart on Montana 35 in Kalispell and was arrested without incident.
“We were all afraid of what he was coming back here to do,” then-Flathead County Sheriff Jim DuPont said at the time.
A .41-caliber pistol and a bundled-up tent were confiscated from Sweet’s vehicle. A fisherman later found the murder weapon near the Sweet’s campsite.
The bodies of Anna and Erik were found that afternoon.
Sweet faced initial charges of deliberate homicide and was later convicted of two counts of mitigated deliberate homicide. Lincoln County District Judge Robert Keller sentenced Sweet to 40 years in Montana State Prison on Sept. 2, 1994.
Sweet was denied parole in January 2009 and April 2014.
After the 2014 hearing, Parole Board Chairman Mike McKee told the Inter Lake Sweet refused to answer questions about the crime and “that made pretty short work of the hearing.”
McKee also said there was significant opposition to Sweet’s parole, including eight to 10 letters from other relatives and friends of his former wife, as well as family members and a last-minute letter from Lincoln County Attorney Bernie Cassidy.
According to McKee, Sweet was represented by his nephew, who supported his release, as did another of Sweet’s relatives.
Friends and family of Janice are using social media to garner support to oppose Sweet’s parole.
Letters referencing inmate No. 36078 may be sent to the Montana Board of Pardons and Parole, 1002 Hollenbeck Road, Deer Lodge, MT, 59722.
Reporter Scott Shindledecker may be reached at 758-4441 or sshindledecker@dailyinterlake.com.
