Man convicted of murder to be sentenced today
A Kalispell man continues to maintain his innocence in the May 26, 2016, murder of Wade Rautio, but nonetheless has asked a judge to send him to prison for decades.
Robert Matthew Wittal, 29, sent a letter to Flathead District Court Judge Robert Allison last week in which he underlined for emphasis that he was “maintaining my innocence in the commission of the crime which I have been convicted.”
He will be sentenced for deliberate homicide at 9 a.m. today. It carries a sentence of up to 100 years in prison.
Wittal continued to say he “understand(s) that this is no longer a question of innocence or guilt. This is now the time where I am going to accept accountability for the conviction in and of itself. If this is the cost that must be paid right up front in order for the family and love ones of the victim to have closure and comfort for their loss then I humbly accept it. There is an appeals process for a reason.”
Wittal also underlined the part of the letter about him accepting accountability.
He was convicted by a jury in October of deliberate homicide for killing Rautio, 35. Rautio’s body was found stashed beneath a log in Brown’s Creek off Peter’s Ridge Road near Echo Lake last June. David Toman, 21, had told police he had witnessed a murder two weeks earlier. A medical examiner determined Rautio had been stabbed 25 times with blows that punctured a lung and severed his carotid arteries and jugular vein.
Testimony at trial established that Wittal, Rautio, Toman and Chris Hansen, 29, had left an Evergreen home belonging to Melisa Crone, 29, in the early morning of May 26.
Additional testimony indicated Rautio had gotten into an argument with either Crone or Wittal the morning of the murder, and that Rautio had been kicked out of the drug house. Rautio did not return with the rest of the group a few hours later, and Crone testified that Wittal told her “he stabbed him about 100 times. He said (Rautio) had a strong soul and he didn’t want to go down. His soul wasn’t ready to leave.”
Hansen and Toman testified that Wittal had done the stabbing, after the three of them took Rautio to Echo Lake. The pair also indicated that Wittal had stabbed Rautio with a long and thick knife, which he dropped in Brown’s Creek before Hansen allegedly handed him another smaller knife to finish the killing. One knife was recovered from the creek. The other was recovered from an outbuilding at Lonesome Dove Ranch, where Hansen told investigators he had buried it.
At trial, Wittal passionately denied being involved in the murder, and claimed he had been set up by his three co-defendants. Crone, Hansen and Toman are set to go on trial in March for homicide and other charges related to the murder.
Wittal explained to Judge Allison in the letter that he intends to take whatever sentence is handed him and use it to rehabilitate himself.
He asked the sentencing judge to take into account his “almost non-existent criminal history,” “the fact that I am a decorated veteran that served a tour of duty,” “the blatant circumstances of which I was convicted (ie. mostly based on the word of the people that admitted to commission of the crime,” and “the opinion of mine that the verdict received was a verdict of passion.”
Despite maintaining his innocence, Wittal wrote that he does not deserve to request anything of the judge, and only did so in the best interests of his family and his son.
“My final request is merely and simply to not receive an extreme sentence,” Wittal wrote. “I’m in no way asking for a minimum sentence. I’m just requesting to not be sentenced harshly. I personally believe that accountability for the conviction can be achieved with either a sentence of 100 years with 30 years suspended or a 60-year sentence and normal patrol eligibility for either one. No matter what I will respect your sentence that is handed to me.”
In Montana, prisoners are eligible for parole after serving one-quarter of their sentence unless other restrictions are set specifically by a judge.