Mason City woman sentenced to probation after shooting at Albert Lea hotel

Anne Halliwell

(ABC6 News) – A Mason City woman was convicted of firing a gun at an Albert Lea hotel in October 2021.

Jessica Ann Hutfles was found guilty of felony 2nd-degree assault with a deadly weapon Thursday. She will spend five years on probation, to be monitored by the MN Department of Corrections.

If she completes her probation, Hutfles’ conviction will be changed to a misdemeanor.

Hutfles spent 154 days in Freeborn County Jail. As part of her probation, she will enter and complete chemical dependency treatment beginning March 29.

Two additional charges, of carrying a pistol in a public place without a permit and intentional discharge of a firearm that endangers safety, were dismissed.

Thursday morning, attorney Grant D. Sanders submitted a motion for a dispositional departure, which could have lightened Hutfles’ sentence, arguing that she was “ particularly amenable to treatment and probation.”

A downward disposal departure is a request for a judge to impose a sentencing that omits prison time. Instead, the defendant would be put on probation, or the sentence could include both prison time and probation.

Hutfles was arrested in October of 2021, after firing a bullet into a door at a Motel 6.