Man released from life sentence for murder sues state for $200,000
A Lake County man released in 2014 by the Montana Supreme Court from a life sentence for deliberate homicide has sued the state of Montana for $200,000 in punitive damages for his alleged wrongful conviction.
Clifford Oldhorn, 30, served 17 months of a 100-year sentence after a jury found him guilty of the 2005 killing of former Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal Chairman Harold Mitchell Jr. Oldhorn was released from prison in January 2013. In June 2014 the Montana Supreme Court ruled Oldhorn could not be re-tried in the case based on his previous statements to detectives that were made after he was promised immunity in the case.
“The transcript of the interview shows [the detectives] carefully and deliberately avoided contradicting Oldhorn’s belief he had been granted immunity by ignoring his questions and affirmatively telling him (the county attorney) had not changed his mind,” Chief Justice Mike McGrath wrote. “We will not condone the use of deception to obtain a confession.”
Three days after his release Oldhorn was booked into the Lake County Jail on a probation violation for drinking alcohol. Judge C.B McNeil revoked Oldhorn’s probation and reinstated the entire 15-year sentence available for three felony cases dating back to 2005 for burglary, theft and deceptive practices. At the time, Oldhorn’s attorney argued that a 72-hour hold in jail is customary for the first-offense violation for drinking alcohol.
In May 2014 the Sentence Review Division of the Montana Supreme Court found the sentence was “clearly excessive.” It ordered 10 years of the 15-year sentence be suspended.
In May 2016 Oldhorn came up for parole and the Montana Board of Pardons and Parole denied a request for release, noting that Oldhorn needed to achieve good behavior objectives before he could be released. The board previously had ordered anger management classes for Oldhorn. He has one more chance to petition the board before his current projected release date of March 3, 2017.
In a federal case filed in U.S. District Court in Missoula on Monday, Oldhorn requested that more of the time he spent in jail on the homicide conviction be credited to his sentence for burglary, theft and deceptive practices. Oldhorn alleged in the self-written lawsuit that 348 days of time he served on the homicide was credited toward his current sentence.
“I served approximately 1,077 days on the homicide and 348 days was credited toward my current sentence,” Oldhorn wrote. “I am requesting that 1,077 days served in my homicide case be credited toward my current sentence; 348 of those days were already credited toward my sentence.”
In addition to the 729 days of credit for time served, Oldhorn is requesting “the amount of 109 dollars for every day I am wrongfully incarcerated.”
He additionally has asked the federal court to assign $200,000 in punitive damages “because the defendants’ listed actions to obtain a confession involved ‘reckless or callous indifference to my rights.’”
Former Lake County Sheriff Jay Doyle, former Lake County Detective Mike Sargeant and former Lake County Attorney Mitch Young are named defendants in the case, in addition to the State of Montana.
Eleven years after the murder, Oldhorn is the only person to have ever served any prison time in the case.
Harold Mitchell, 73, was found beaten with this throat slashed, body doused in gasoline and burned in what appeared to be an attempted robbery in July 2005.
Authorities did not have enough evidence for a conviction in the case until Oldhorn came forward in 2007, while serving prison time in Great Falls in another case.
In April 2008 Oldhorn admitted to detectives that he was outside Mitchell’s home at the time of the murder and gave the names of two people who allegedly killed the man. After being reassured by investigating deputies that they would be lenient with him, he gave a full account of what happened and admitted being inside the trailer during the robbery.
Oldhorn was transported to Polson in April 2010 after Young filed charges against him and three others for deliberate homicide. Oldhorn was reassured by deputies that Young had not changed his mind about trading Oldhorn’s confession for immunity. He was then interviewed but was not told he had been charged with Mitchell’s murder.
Later, Oldhorn stopped working with deputies. Without Oldhorn’s testimony to convict them, charges against three others allegedly involved in the crime were dropped in 2011.
A hearing date in the federal filing has not yet been set.
Reporter Megan Strickland can be reached at 758-4459 or mstrickland@dailyinterlake.com.