Birmingham gets 100 years

Grieving family protests sentence

By Jennifer McBride / Leader Staff

POLSON — After a two-hour hearing Friday, Judge C.B. McNeil sentenced 20-year-old Arlee resident Kelly Birmingham, a.k.a. Kelly Stanfield, to 100 years in the Montana State Prison for deliberate homicide.

McNeil's decision met with the protests of his victim's family, friends and teachers, who asked that Birmingham be sentenced to life without parole. Birmingham could potentially be paroled in 25 years, when he's 45 years old, though Lake County Attorney Mitch Young told the Judge that it was "highly unlikely" Birmingham would ever be released.

Birmingham was charged with beating Tasheena Craft, an 18-year-old Spokane resident, to death in May 2007 in her sister's Arlee residence. The county attorney and Birmingham reached a plea agreement last December which calls for Birmingham to serve 100 years in jail, which the judge accepted despite the objections from Craft's family.

In court, Diana Cote, mother of victim Tasheena Craft, said that she didn't want Birmingham jailed because of vengeance, but because the safety of the community was at risk. "If they let him out, he might start killing everybody," she said.

After the hearing, Cote announced that she planned to continue the protest and would write letters to the Montana District attorney and fight against Judge C.B. McNeil's re-election campaign.

Along with homicide, Birmingham also pleaded guilty to one count of tampering with evidence and one count of tampering with witnesses. The plea agreement calls for Birmingham to serve 10 years in prison per offense, to run concurrent with the 100-year sentence. The county attorney dropped one count of tampering with witnesses and informants and two counts of felony attempted escape.

Birmingham was charged with attempted escape for allegedly attempting to flee officers' custody during an interview and reporting kicking out the window of a police car, leaping out and trying to run down the Highway. Young also agreed not to charge Birmingham in a November incident, when Birmingham reportedly scuffled with officers in jail.

Outside the courthouse after the hearing, friends and family of Craft gathered in a song and prayer circle with signs protesting the sentence. Vanessa Pete said the prayer circle was dedicated to her late sister-in-law, who had a "powerful voice."

"[It was] a way of healing together, telling Sheena we love her and miss her and are singing her song for her," Pete said.

Testimony

In court, Tasheena Craft's friends and family members reminisced about her on the stand. Shelly Boyd, Craft's school counselor, said "she reminded me a butterfly, because she was so soft and never imposed herself."

Rueben Mathias, a tribal councilman from Elmo and a friend of Craft's mother, said that Craft's death had affected everyone on the Flathead Reservation. "A death on the reservation in any form, especially for our children, is very, very sad," he said. "My children are afraid of what's out there, and they shouldn't be afraid."

In her testimony, Cote told the court that she had sympathy for her daughter's killer.

"If they would have given him to me as a baby, he would never have done this," she said. "Terrible things were done to him."

Birmingham's father was charged in 2006 in a Ravalli county court for allegedly beating his wife and son. Birmingham's father died in a motorcycle crash two days before Craft's death and, according to court documents, Birmingham told detectives when he admitted killing Craft that he committed the murder because Craft made a disparaging remark about his father.

While Cote said she sympathized with Birmingham, she also said wanted to see him in prison for a long time.

"My daughter's not Jesus," she said. "She should not have had to suffer for all the sins of others."

Cote also said the county attorney should have charged Birmingham with rape.

"He needed to be charged rightfully with rape," Cote said, "That was the reason he killed her. Because she refused him."

Young said in a post-meeting interview that Craft had sex before she was murdered, but stated that there hadn't been enough physical evidence to charge Birmingham with sexual assault.

Birmingham spoke to the family through his lawyer, Lance Jasper, during the proceedings.

"He wants to express sincere apologies for the pain he has caused," Jasper said.

Craft's brother, Shonto Pete, said he wasn't as understanding as his mother.

"My mother's forgiving, but I'm not so forgiving," he said in court. "We all have troubles in our past, but we don't go around killing people."

History

According to court documents, between 2:30 and 3 a.m. May 29, 2007, Chance Crowder, the boyfriend of Tasheena Craft's sister, woke up and saw Birmingham dragging Craft's body across the floor. Craft had reportedly been visiting her sister to see their mother and her fiance.

Crowder told detectives that Birmingham told him to keep Craft's sister quiet while he cleaned the room, according to an affidavit filed by Young. He admitted to Crowder that he had beat Craft.

"I kept hitting her and hitting her," Birmingham said to Crowder, the affidavit states.

Crowder woke Craft's sister up after he heard Birmingham's truck pulling out of the driveway, court documents said. Deputies from the Lake County Sheriff's office and Tribal officers found Birmingham at his Missoula County residence. They saw a bottle of bleach and a pink slipper lying in Birmingham's 1982 green Volkswagen truck, which Birmingham said belonged to his father.

The matching pink slipper was still on Craft's foot when two Tribal policeman found Craft's body an hour later, wrapped in a blanket and left in the area known as Arlee Pines, near Birmingham's childhood home.

Craft was living with her brother and sister-in-law and going to school in Spokane shortly before her death. Vanessa Pete, Craft's sister-in-law, said that since Craft's death, Pete's three-year-old son asks her every day, "Where's Sheena?" Every day, Pete told the court, she has to explain to him that Craft isn't alive anymore.

"You hear a little bit of crying here [in court]," Pete said, "but I wish you could hear all the anger in our homes when we're screaming for Sheena."