Madplume convicted for rape, murder

*This story is updated from an earlier version.

POLSON — Melvin Madplume’s weeklong trial reached a conclusion on Saturday afternoon, when a jury found the Ronan defendant guilty of deliberate homicide and sexual intercourse without consent. Madplume, 30, stood accused of raping and killing his cousin, Laurence Kenmille, in a private room at Wild Horse Hot Springs, near the town of Hot Springs, last May.

The twelve-member jury announced their unanimous decision just over two hours after closing arguments in the trial were completed. Madplume faces the possibility of life in prison and will be sentenced March 28. He will first be required to undergo a pre-sentencing psychosexual evaluation to identify his level of risk for re-offending. District Court Judge John Larson, of Missoula, indicated that bond would remain at $1 million.

Prosecutors had spent the week arguing that the 28-year-old Kenmille drowned “as a result of a violent, premeditated sexual attack” while Madplume’s attorneys contended that Kenmille had drowned accidentally, due to the combined effects of alcohol, marijuana and prolonged time spent in the room’s hot tub.

After being presented with loads of evidence and testimony detailing Kenmille’s graphic injuries, jurors eventually reached the same conclusion as county attorney Mitch Young, who said in his closing statement that “the only person with the ability, the opportunity and the motive to complete that homicide is sitting right there,” alluding to Madplume.

One of the key witnesses called to testify in the case was another male cousin of Madplume’s who said that the defendant had made unwelcome sexual advances toward him at Wild Horse Hot Springs the week before Kenmille’s death.

The jury also watched footage of Madplume’s interviews with Lake County undersheriff Dan Yonkin in the immediate aftermath of the incident.

While Madplume had initially said that Kenmille hit the back of his head after an accidental slip and fall, details that emerged from the autopsy and other witnesses soon revealed several inconsistencies in Madplume’s version of what transpired.

Kenmille’s body showed signs of numerous blunt force injuries, including prominent wounds on the front and back of his head.

“It’s hard to get both those injuries in a single fall,” Yonkin explained to Madplume in their videotaped conversation.

Madplume insisted that he had “blacked out a few times” and continually denied remembering events from the night — something that prosecutors claimed was a defensive maneuver he used whenever “things start getting hard to explain.”

“I didn’t even know anything was wrong with him,” Madplume told Yonkin.

“I’m pretty good at figuring out whether someone’s under the influence of something,” Yonkin said on the tape, noting that neither he nor any other individuals that night observed any indication that Madplume was intoxicated.

Eventually, Yonkin received a report from the State Crime Lab that said Kenmille had sustained anal lacerations and rectal bruising “at or around the time of death.”

Madplume denied any knowledge of those injuries and ended the interview shortly thereafter.