By HDN Staff
Reid Danell will have a long time to think about his fatal actions one early morning in September 1999 at a Havre home.
Danell, 18, Monday pleaded guilty to double homicide in 12th Judicial District Court in the shooting deaths of Kristi Walker and Kevin Caplette.
The admitted shooter in the double homicide will be sentenced June 29.
Danell could be sentenced to life in prison or from 10 to 100 years on each count and he could be ordered to serve the sentences consecutively.
We encourage Judge John Warner, who isn't bound by the plea agreement, to hand down the maximum sentence possibly in order to protect society from the admitted murderer.
The protection is definitely needed because Danell is a habitual offender and violator of society's laws. Even after he was incarcerated in the Hill County Detention Center, Danell found a way to strike out at society by allegedly stabbing a fellow inmate in the eye with a pencil.
Montana has the death penalty and the Danell case was a clear case of why the death penalty should be used. The Havre man ended the lives of two people and he is beyond rehabilitation. The only thing he will be doing for the rest of his life is living on the taxpayers' dime and continuing to cause problems in a prison somewhere.
Hopefully, the victims' families will be able to begin the healing process once Danell is paying the price for his admitted crimes.
