Old-Horn gets 100 years for Mitchell murder

POLSON — A man convicted of deliberate homicide proclaimed his innocence in Lake County District Court Wednesday, Aug. 31.

Judge C.B. McNeil then sentenced Clifford Old-Horn to the maximum penalty of 100 years in Montana State Prison with no chance of parole. After a trial that concluded on June 24, a jury found Old-Horn guilty in the death of 73-year-old Harold Mitchell Jr. Prosecutors argued that Old-Horn helped rob, beat and stab Mitchell to death before burning down his St. Ignatius trailer on the morning of July 6, 2005.

Old-Horn’s defense attorney, Ronald Piper, read a prepared statement expressing remorse and sympathy to Mitchell’s family on behalf of his client.

Despite the guilty verdict, Old-Horn and Piper have maintained that his involvement in the crime was limited.

“I have faith and trust that one day we will see the sad truth,” the statement read. “I hope the real man or woman responsible will someday hear or read my words.”

While the Lake County Attorney’s Office had asked for the maximum sentence, the defense asked for a 40-year sentence with 25 years suspended based on perceived mitigating factors.

“[Old-Horn] had personally no active role killing Mr. Mitchell,” Piper said. “He did not burn the trailer. When he realized the other parties were going to beat an old man, he left. He had no active role.”

During the trial, Lake County Attorney Mitch Young said that Old-Horn had told police the truth about Mitchell’s death in interviews in 2007 and 2010, which were recorded at the Great Falls Regional Prison. Young said Old-Horn knew too many details — details not made public — to be innocent of the crime. Although Old-Horn’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 said.

“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.

McNeil referenced Old-Horn’s four prior felonies and called deliberate homicide the most egregious crime in Montana law. Cries broke out in the back of the Lake County courtroom as Old-Horn was given 100 years for the crime. As he was being led out of the courtroom, Old-Horn looked to those crying, nodded silently and was escorted out.

Earlier this year, the state was forced to drop charges against the crime’s other three alleged co-conspirators, Nathan Ross, Nigel Ernst and Kyle Brown, after Old-Horn refused to testify against them.

The minimum penalty for deliberate homicide is 10 years.