Man must remain on probation for 2008 strangling in Evergreen

An Evergreen man convicted of strangling his neighbor to death during a fight over damage to a fence 13 years ago was back in Flathead County District Court on Monday seeking a release from supervision.

Michael Gerald Cuchine, 48, was sentenced to 15 years, with 10 suspended, for killing 47-year-old Steven Guy Maycumber after a May 2008 argument in front of Maycumber's Evergreen home turned violent.

On Monday, District Judge Heidi Ulbricht denied Cuchine's request to be released from probation after hearing video testimony from the victim's niece, Sharene Ahlin.

"I am deeply disappointed Mr. Cuchine is seeking to reduce his sentence further," Ahlin said. "My uncle was a good man, an Army veteran, who came home to take care of his elderly mother."

Shortly after the killing, Cuchine argued that Maycumber had attacked him with an ax.

"I'm sorry it happened," Cuchine said in 2008.

Flathead County Deputy Attorney Andrew Clegg argued Monday that Cuchine should serve the remainder of his sentence.

Maycumber's sister, Marcia Ballowe, wrote a letter opposing Cuchine's release from probation, pointing out Cuchine was jailed after one of multiple drunken driving arrests, and released to house arrest on May 26, 2008.

"His girlfriend drove him home to his trailer, purchased a case of beer that he consumed, then Michael jumped over my mother's fence and strangled my brother Steven," Ballowe wrote. "If Michael Cuchine had any respect for the law or authority, he would have followed the terms of his house arrest … but instead he murdered my brother. … Removing the 'conditional' probation will likely give him further opportunity to cause harm to others."

Cuchine, who served only two years in the Montana State Prison for the killing, will be on probation for another two years.

Cuchine told the judge Monday he has been a law-abiding person with the exception of one traffic ticket for not stopping at a stop sign.

"I pay my taxes, I've fessed up to what I've done, and I stay out of trouble," he said.

He said after serving two years in prison he was on pre-release before moving to Deer Lodge where his father lived. Cuchine also said he has held a job at Sun Mountain Logging in Deer Lodge. He's been on probation since 2012 and no longer lives in the Flathead Valley.

ACCORDING TO a previous Daily Inter Lake story, the fight began while Cuchine and Maycumber were discussing damage done to Maycumber's fence by a third neighbor's children.

As the argument intensified, Cuchine said he crossed the fence line and Maycumber struck him with a wood-splitting maul.

"He confronted me with that ax … I didn't want to kill him," Cuchine said at the time. "It just got out of hand."

After trading punches, the pair began grappling and Cuchine applied a choke hold.

"I'm sorry that this happened," said Cuchine, who claimed self-defense. "It shakes me … I can't put into words how I feel."

Then-Flathead County Attorney Ed Corrigan called the beating "merciless" and argued Cuchine had flown into a "blind rage."

State medical examiners determined Maycumber would have lost consciousness in three to four seconds, while it would have been necessary to continue the chokehold for one to five minutes to cause death, according to court documents.

"It was a senseless murder," Maycumber's sister, Sharon Walker, said at the time. She asked then-District Judge Stewart Stadler for a harsher sentence. "Our lives are destroyed now because of what happened."

Family members described Maycumber as a "gentle giant." He lived with his 84-year-old mother and helped her around the house.

In exchange for Cuchine's guilty plea to the lesser crime of negligent homicide, prosecutors dismissed a mitigated deliberate homicide charge and agreed to recommend the sentence Cuchine ultimately received.

Reporter Scott Shindledecker may be reached at 406-758-4441 or sshindledecker@dailyinterlake.com.