Murderer's escape conviction is nixed

The Associated Pressand

and The Daily Inter Lake

HELENA - Because of poor wording in jury instructions, a district judge has overturned the convictions of two men who escaped from a prison transport van here in 2004.

District Judge Thomas Honzel sided with the defense, which argued that the instructions indicated that Brian Holliday and William Brown weren't in the custody of peace officers in the van and therefore couldn't have escaped.

Holliday is serving a 90-year prison term for killing a man in Flathead County.

Deputy Lewis and Clark County Attorney Carolyn Clemens said Wednesday she won't resubmit charges. She said given past U.S. Supreme Court rulings regarding "double jeopardy" - being tried twice for the same crime - efforts to refile the charges probably would be denied.

Clemens added she was disappointed with Honzel's decision, but tacking on more time to the men's existing life sentences was never her goal.

"Trying them for escape in the first place was not to give them more time, as they are lifers anyway, but rather to let them and others know that we wouldn't just turn a deaf ear on escapes in Helena," she said.

Holliday, Brown, Russell VanKirk and Jasper Phillips were charged with escape after they removed a screen from the back window of a transport van and jumped out. All the men were apprehended within hours of their escape.

Holliday was quickly captured. He ran west for about a block before a Helena policeman caught him. He had taken off one leg shackle and one arm shackle.

Phillips and VanKirk pleaded guilty to escape. Holliday and Brown proceeded to trial, and a Powell County jury convicted them in October.

Public defenders Randi Hood and Jeremy Gersovitz called the legality of the verdict into question within weeks.

Holliday had been convicted of a 2001 murder up the North Fork.

He was sentenced in November 2002 to 90 years in prison, ineligible for parole for at least 40 years, for killing a New Mexico tourist at Red Meadow Campground in summer 2001.

Holliday and a companion, Michelle Ford, shot and killed Randy Bravo, then burned and buried his body. They stole his truck, credit cards, cameras and camping gear.