Suspect's bid to drop burglary charge rejected
Flathead District Court Judge Stewart Stadler has denied an accused murderer’s request to dismiss a felony burglary charge.
Attorneys for Jeffrey Nixon had argued during an April 27 hearing that the Flathead County Attorney’s Office filed the charge on March 1 in response to the 20-year-old’s decision to reject a proposed plea agreement.
The allegation that the move represented “prosecutorial vindictiveness” was dismissed by Stadler in an order filed Monday.
“Standing alone, the timing of a prosecutor’s decision to increase a defendant’s charges is insufficient to make such a showing,” Stadler wrote.
Nixon initially was charged in April 2010 with deliberate homicide, robbery and evidence tampering for the bludgeoning death of 49-year-old Kalispell man Wesley “Bubba” Collins.
Prosecutors filed amended information, adding the additional burglary charge, days after Nixon rejected a plea agreement in which he would have agreed to plead guilty to accountability to deliberate homicide in exchange for a recommended sentence of 60 years, according to testimony at the April 27 hearing.
Nixon has pleaded innocent to all of the charges.
Nixon’s attorney Noel Larrivee elicited testimony from Deputy County Attorney Alison Howard, his fellow defense attorney Nick Aemisegger and Public Defender John Putikka at the April 27 hearing, during which he tried to establish a history of late filings by the Flathead County Attorney’s Office.
The burglary charge was filed three weeks before Nixon’s March 21 trial was scheduled to begin. Stadler wrote in his ruling that rules governing District Court allow charges to be filed up to five days prior to a trial.
He also cited case law indicating that prosecutorial vindictiveness — which occurs when a prosecutor increases charges against a defendant in retaliation for his or her assertion of a statutory right — generally cannot arise from pretrial plea negotiations.
Prosecutors, Stadler wrote, enjoy broad discretion in charging decisions.
Under questioning by County Attorney Ed Corrigan, Howard said during the April 17 hearing that the decision to add the burglary charge was made to ensure that Nixon is held accountable if a jury were to decide he is innocent of deliberate homicide.
His trial tentatively is scheduled to begin July 11. The burglary charge would add up to 20 years to a slate of charges that already carry maximum punishment of 160 years in Montana State Prison, should Nixon be convicted.
Nixon is accused of helping Robert Allen Lake beat Collins to death with hammers while at Collins’ Kalispell apartment on April 12, 2010. They allegedly murdered him to steal his medical marijuana and other possessions.
Lake, 22, pleaded guilty Feb. 14 to deliberate homicide and tampering with physical evidence after reaching a plea agreement with the Flathead County Attorney’s Office. Though he later claimed he didn’t understand the charges, he was sentenced to 110 years in Montana State Prison on April 6.
Cody Naldrett, 28, was sentenced to 10 years of probation and six months in jail April 28 for helping hide Collins’ body in a wooded area off of Patrick Creek Road.
Lake’s former girlfriend, Karrolyn Robinson, was sentenced to eight years in Montana Women’s Prison in December for deleting text messages from two cellphones that were evidence in the case.
Joshua Fritz accepted a plea agreement in October 2010 and pleaded guilty to felony tampering with evidence. He received a five-year suspended sentence.
Reporter Eric Schwartz may be reached at 758-4441 or by email at eschwartz@dailyinterlake.com.