 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to DUI Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
State v. Egelhoff7/6/1995
52 St.Rep. 548
Heard October 27. 1994. Submitted February 23, 1995.
James Allen Egelhoff (Egelhoff) appeals his conviction in the District Court of the Nineteenth Judicial District, Lincoln County, on two counts of deliberate homicide for the shooting deaths of his two companions following a day of drinking. Egelhoff was sentenced to forty years on each count and an additional two-year term for use of a weapon on each count, a total of eighty-four years, to run consecutively. The District Court also designated him as a dangerous offender for parole purposes. We reverse and remand.
The following issues are presented on appeal:
I. Was Egelhoff denied due process by a jury instruction that voluntary intoxication may not be taken into consideration in determining the existence of a mental state which is an element of the offense?
II. Did the District Court err in permitting a lay witness to give opinion testimony?
III. Are the jury verdicts finding Egelhoff guilty of two counts of deliberate homicide supported by substantial evidence?
IV. Did the District Court err in designating Egelhoff a dangerous offender for purposes of parole?
We conclude that Issue I is dispositive.
Egelhoff was convicted by a jury of two counts of deliberate homicide for the July 12, 1992 shooting deaths of Roberta Pavola (Pavola) and John Christianson (Christianson). At approximately midnight on July 12, 1992, their bodies were found in the front seat of the station wagon belonging to Christianson and Egelhoff was found in the rear cargo area, alive but intoxicated.
Egelhoff and a friend from Helena went to the Yaak area near Troy to pick mushrooms in early July 1992. Egelhoff had no transportation and no personal effects apart from some clothing and a .38 caliber handgun which he kept in a holster on his right hip.
Pavola and Christianson, also in the Yaak area to pick mushrooms, camped in an area near the place where they picked mushrooms. Egelhoff and his companion camped in the same area as Christianson and Pavola and became acquainted with them. Egelhoff's companion departed prior to the day Pavola and Christianson were killed.
Egelhoff, Pavola and Christianson sold their mushrooms on Sunday, July 12, 1992 and then bought beer and went to a party at a Troy apartment. They spent most of the day drinking at the party and in bars. The trio left the party sometime after 9:00 p.m. in Christianson's station wagon with Christianson driving, Pavola in the front passenger seat and Egelhoff in the rear.
Much of what occurred after they left the party that evening is unknown. Testimony at trial indicated that Egelhoff and Christianson were seen in an IGA grocery store at approximately 9:20 p.m. and that Christianson's station wagon was seen being driven in an erratic manner on Highway 2 west of Troy a while later. Christianson's vehicle was also observed going off the road into a ditch several times. Law enforcement officers later located five places in the area where a vehicle had gone off the highway.
Numerous witnesses testified about their observations during this period of time. Two of the witnesses who observed the Christianson vehicle reported a possible drunken driver to the Lincoln County Sheriff's department shortly before midnight. When the station wagon came to its final stop and the sheriff's officers arrived, it was situated in a ditch, Pavola and Christianson were dead and Egelhoff was yelling obscenities from the rear of the vehicle.
Both Pavola and Christianson died from gunshot wounds. Pavola had been sho
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Montana DUI Attorneys
DUI Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to DUI Lawyers in your area.
|
|