Old-Horn guilty: Five day trial, 90 minute decision

POLSON — In the end Clifford Old-Horn's fate hung on his own words.

"If you believe the defendant's confession," county attorney Mitch Young told the jury during closing arguments in district court Friday morning, "then he's guilty of the death of Harold Mitchell Jr. And by the laws of the state of Mont., he's guilty of deliberate homicide."

After only 90 minutes of deliberation the jury made it clear that they did, indeed, believe the confession. The 12 men and women declared the 24-year-old guilty of felony deliberate homicide, a charge which carries a minimum penalty of 10 years in prison.

The defendant's conviction stems from his involvement in the murder of Harold Mitchell Jr., 73, of St. Ignatius. According to court testimony, in the early morning hours of July 6, 2005 Old-Horn and three accomplices robbed Mitchell, beat and stabbed him to death and then set his trailer-home on fire.

Old-Horn was arrested for the crime in the spring of 2010 after confessing his involvement to police, ostensibly because he believed that for his cooperation he would receive immunity.

In closing arguments for the prosecution, Young argued that Old-Horn told police the truth about Mitchell's death in interviews in 2007 and 2010, taken and taped at the Great Falls Regional Prison. According to Young, Old-Horn knew too many details, details not made public, to be innocent of the crime. Although the defendant's story differed from 2007 to 2010, it was because Old-Horn was trying to decrease his culpability, not because he was fabricating a story, Young asserted.

"If there was ever a time to tell detectives what the defendant is now trying to sell you as the truth, that would have been it," Young said about Old-Horn's 2010 interview.

But the most incriminating piece of evidence, according to Young, was evidence provided by Old-Horn's acquaintance Rhonda Fellsman; evidence that Young described as the elephant in the room.

According to testimony, Fellsman came forward in 2006 with information that Old-Horn had confessed to her that he was involved in the murder - information provided one year before the date Old-Horn claimed to have made up the story.

"What Mr. Young neglected to mention," defense attorney Ronald Piper countered in his closing argument, "is that when the elephant in the room presented itself, it brought along its criminal defense attorney."

Fellsman, according to Piper, was more interested in reducing her own jail sentence than in telling the truth, and as such should not be considered a credible witness. Instead, the jury should approach Old-Horn's story logically, Piper said.

"He's not a suspect at that point. Why would he do that, put himself out there if he was actually involved?" Piper asked. "That makes absolutely no sense."

Over the course of the five-day trial, attorneys presented jurors with a litany of evidence, most of it in the form of witness testimony and much of it conflicting. And although the two sides offered differing explanations, the one piece of evidence they agreed to be crucial was Old-Horn's videotaped 2007 interview.

In the video, shown to the jury Wednesday afternoon, then-Det. Jay Doyle presents Old-Horn with the evidence given to them by Fellsman a year earlier. At that point Old-Horn's behavior seems to shift dramatically.

According to Young, Old-Horn's demeanor changed because he realized that police had more evidence against him than he'd previously realized.

"The salesman got emotional, covered his face and finally started telling the truth," Young said.

But according to the defendant himself, who took the stand Thursday morning, his behavior shifted because he didn't think police were buying his story, and he felt he needed to sell it more convincingly.

"Detective Jay Doyle gave me a story," Old-Horn said from the witness stand, about Doyle offering additional details during the interview. "I didn't know where he got the story from, so I took a gamble and made the story my own."

In addition to the defendant's testimony, the jury heard from Sheriff Doyle, Rhonda Fellsman and Nathan Ross, one of the other men allegedly involved in the murder.

After hearing the jury's verdict late Friday morning, the court revoked Old-Horn's bond. He will remain incarcerated until sentencing, set for August 31, 9 a.m.