Murder charges could be dismissed soon
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POLSON – Murder charges against Clifford Oldhorn will be dismissed if both sides can agree on one word: Prejudice.
Lake County Prosecuting Attorney Mitch Young requested the court dismiss charges against Oldhorn “without prejudice,” but Montana State Region 2 Regional Deputy Public Defender Dave Stenerson wants the charges dismissed “with” prejudice.
“’Without’ means that if something comes up later with regard to the case the State could re-file charges. Homicide does not have a statute of limitations,” Stenerson said.
That means that from today until the day Oldhorn dies, the State can return to the case, charge and prosecute him again.
“’With’ prejudice means that it ends right now. No further charges can be filed,” Stenerson said.
Oldhorn was not in court for his Lake County Court status hearing Aug. 8.
“The State says defendant is not in custody as sentence review reduced his sentence,” an Aug. 8 Lake County Court minute entry reads.
But Montana Department of Corrections records show Oldhorn is in custody at Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge, Montana.
“There was some confusion about that,” Stenerson said.
The answer to that confusion boiled down to a paperwork shuffle not-yet-completed in the prison system.
Oldhorn’s public records show a ‘status change’ on Aug. 2, but sentence reviewing hearing results were not available at press time.
“There was a change at the status hearing,” Stenerson said. “I believe his sentence was reduced from 10 years suspended to 5 years suspended.”
But what that means to his release date from prison is still unknown.
Oldhorn is serving the rest of a sentence imposed on a previous conviction, Oldhorn began serving after violating a previous probation.
Stenerson said that the way the paperwork was written, Oldhorn never actually served any time for the murder charge and will not be getting credit for time served other than the credit given by Lake County District Court Judge C.B. McNeil in Feb. 2013.
In August 2011, a jury convicted Oldhorn of deliberate homicide after 90 minutes of deliberation.
Prosecutors argued that Oldhorn helped rob, beat and stab Harold Mitchell, 73, and a former CSKT Chairman, to death before burning down his St. Ignatius trailer on the morning of July 6, 2005.
District Court Judge C.B. Mc Neil first sentenced Oldhorn to 100 years in prison with no possibility of parole, then in 2013 released Oldhorn after the Montana Supreme Court ruled Oldhorn was wrongly convicted, based on details he gave in a protected confession.
More rounds of legal wrangling ensued. but the Montana Supreme Court eventually ruled Oldhorn deserved a new trial.
Oldhorn’s attorneys argued that statements he made to investigators shouldn’t have been used against him because he believed he had immunity.
Montana Supreme Court Justices ruled that a letter from Lake County Attorney Mitch Young explaining the immunity agreement contained legal distinctions that are, “not readily apparent even to those trained in the law,” and that statements made by officers led Oldhorn to believe he would not be prosecuted.
Prosecutors said without Oldhorn’s statements they likely couldn’t gain a conviction.
After his conviction in 2011, Oldhorn’s defense attorney, Ronald Piper, read a prepared statement expressing Oldhorn’s remorse and sympathy to Mitchell’s family.
Despite the guilty verdict, Oldhorn and Piper 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.
“[Oldhorn] 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, Young said that Oldhorn 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 Oldhorn knew too many details — details not made public — to be innocent of the crime. Although Oldhorn’s story differed from 2007 to 2010, it was because Oldhorn 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 Oldhorn’s 2010 interview.
McNeil referenced Oldhorn’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 after McNeil read the sentence.
Earlier in 2011, the state was forced to drop charges against the crime’s other three alleged co-conspirators, Nathan Ross, Nigel Ernst and Kyle Brown, after Oldhorn refused to testify against them.
(Editor Vince Lovato contributed to this report.)