Eight year-old Carli Miller was killed in a two-vehicle collision on Highway 12 in July of 2017 when then 21 year-old Aaron Pattan fell asleep at the wheel and crashed his Toyota pickup truck into the Miller family’s vehicle.

A Montana Highway Patrol dispatcher provided details of the accident on the day it occurred.

"The Toyota Tacoma was eastbound on U.S. Highway 12 when the driver fell asleep," the dispatcher said. "The vehicle drifted off the right side on the curve, over-corrected, crossed the center line and collided with a GMC Sierra. The Sierra then went off the road and rolled."

The dispatcher said an eight year-old girl in the GMC Sierra was killed.

"An eight year-old girl in the GMC Sierra was transported to Community Medical Center where she died from her injuries," the dispatcher said.

Patten was sentenced in January to 16 days in jail, six months of probation and to pay restitution.

On Tuesday, Pattan appeared via telephone before Judge Landee Holloway on a Petition to Revoke his suspended sentence, according to Deputy Missoula County Attorney Mac Bloom.

“We filed a petition to revoke back in July over a failure to pay restitution,” said Bloom. “He appeared today in a status conference to talk about his restitution payments and a status update, so the court set another status conference for November 19th to see if he was able to make more progress on paying his restitution. At the next hearing the judge ordered him to appear personally if it has not been paid off in full.”

Bloom explained the consequences if Pattan does not abide by the court’s orders.

“Then, the prosecutor can revoke the suspended portion of the sentence and ask that the court resentence him,” Bloom continued. “The court has the ability to resentence up to the amount that was suspended on count one, and then six months on count two. Those are running consecutively, meaning back to back, so the time he did not serve could theoretically be imposed by the court.”

Bloom said the court will consider if Pattan has made a ‘good faith effort’ to pay the restitution at the hearing in November, where he must appear in person.

 

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