State Ex Rel. Kuntz v. Montana Thirteenth Judicial District Court

995 P.2d 951 (2000)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Deputies were dispatched on April 19, 1998, to the home of D and Warren Becker to investigate a reported stabbing. When the deputies arrived at the trailer house, Becker was dead from a single stab wound to the chest. D was waiting for medical and law enforcement to arrive. D said that she and Becker had argued that morning and both parties left the trailer home. After D returned that evening, a physical altercation ensued. D and Becker, who had never married but had lived together for approximately six years, were in the process of ending what is described as a stormy relationship. When D arrived at the mobile home that night, she discovered that many of her personal belongings had been destroyed, the interior of the home 'trashed,' and the phone ripped from the wall. Kuntz told the deputies that she then went into the kitchen. There, Becker physically attacked her, and at one point grabbed her by the hair, shook her, and slammed her into the stove. D could not remember everything. D had pushed Becker away and had then gone outside by the kitchen door to 'cool off.' When she thought that the fight was over and that it was safe to go back inside, she returned to the kitchen. She discovered a trail of blood leading from the kitchen through the living room and out onto the front porch where she found Becker collapsed face-down on the porch. She alleges that she rolled him over. Becker was unresponsive. D got Becker's car keys in one of his pockets, got in his vehicle, drove to a friend's house several miles away, and called her mother. Authorities were apparently summoned by D's sister-in-law, who lived next door to D's mother, sometime within an hour after the stabbing. Kuntz did return, however, to the trailer home where she waited for the deputies and medics to arrive. D was charged with negligent homicide. D entered a plea of not guilty based on the defense of justifiable use of force. P filed an amended information charging the same offense but alleging that D caused the death by stabbing him once in the chest with a knife and by failing to call for medical assistance. D again entered a plea of not guilty. D then filed a motion to dismiss the amended information or in the alternative to strike the allegation that the failure to seek medical assistance constituted negligent homicide. The District Court denied D’s motion. P applied for a write of supervisory control.