High court denies St. Ignatius man's appeal in child abuse case

The Montana Supreme Court has denied an appeal by a St. Ignatius man serving a 35-year prison sentence for severely abusing a child in Great Falls in January 2013. 

Riley Charlo-Whitworth, 24, had asked that a new trial be conducted so that a jury might also take into account the possible culpability of an aunt and uncle who allegedly knew about the abuse. 

Charlo-Whitworth was convicted by a jury of felony assault on a minor, criminal endangerment and aggravated assault after his girlfriend’s two-year-old son was taken to the hospital in Great Falls with injuries so serious that he had to be flown to Seattle for life-saving treatment. The child had severe injuries to his pancreas  and mouth and showed signs of having taken blows to the genitals. 

Charlo-Whitworth’s attorney claimed in the child had whined and fell down the stairs when Charlo-Whitworth took the child with him to take out the trash. Charlo-Whitworth’s attorney wrote that  Charlo-Whitworth had admitted that “he shoved (the child) into the wall, spanked (the child), struck (the child) several times, and admitted to hammer fisting (the child’s) genitals.”

However, Charlo-Whitworth’s attorney claimed that an aunt and uncle who told the child’s mother, Alexis Paul, 23, to take the child to the doctor, also should have been held partially accountable. 

“(The uncle) knew immediately that (the child) was abused,” the appeal claimed. “(The uncle) was very upset and told (the aunt) he thought Riley was abusing (the child). (The uncle) wanted to kill Riley because he assumed Riley had beaten (the child).”

The mother took the child home and went to the emergency room a short time later. 

Paul pleaded guilty to criminal endangerment and was sentenced to five years probation in a plea agreement. The child was returned to relatives in St. Ignatius. 

“The failure to provide care to a child who is visibly injured constitutes criminal endangerment of the child,” public defenders in the case claimed. 

The Montana Supreme Court did not buy into that argument. The decision states that juries in Montana can be instructed to weigh the fact that witnesses might be testifying in order to receive a lesser sentence through a prosecution deal, but that the lower court correctly denied similar jury instructions proposed by Charlo-Whitworth’s attorneys. Charlo-Whitworth’s defense was that Paul had caused the injuries. 

“If the defendant claims at trial that he did not commit the acts for which he is being tried, he cannot then ask the court to instruct the jury that a testifying witness aided the defendant in the commission of those acts,” Chief Justice Mike McGrath wrote. “In other words, a person cannot be an accomplice to a person who did not commit the crime. Further, if there is no evidence to suggest that a testifying witness is legally accountable, then it is not proper to give the accomplice liability instruction.”