Johnson murder retrial starts today

The retrial of a Havre man convicted of negligent homicide in 2014 in the shooting death of his brother started today in state District Court in the Hill County Courthouse.

The retrial of Shane Clark Johnson started with jury selection this morning, with District Judge Matthew Cuffe presiding.

In initial discussions, Cuffe said they expected opening arguments may be made this afternoon. 

Johnson had appealed his 2014 conviction, arguing the court made errors in allowing the jury unrestricted access to all of the state’s testimonial audio and video exhibits during deliberations and by allowing the state to add a negligent homicide charge at the end of trial that was not included within the deliberate homicide charge for which the state tried Johnson.

The Montana Supreme Court ruled that select errors had been made and overturned the verdict, sending the case back to District Court in Havre last fall for a new trial.

In the 2014 trial, the prosecution argued that Johnson and his brother, Travis Johnson, had been drinking together at home. After getting into an argument that included a physical fight, Shane Johnson took a gun from his bedroom and ended up in a struggle with his brother that ranged throughout the basement where their bedrooms were located, with shots fired in multiple locations, and ended up shooting his brother.

Shane Johnson said his brother came into his room while he was lying in bed and took the gun from under the bed where it was kept, and he was trying to get it away from Travis Johnson to prevent him from hurting himself or others, and Travis Johnson was shot during the struggle.

At the end of Shane Johnson’s trial in September 2014, the jury could not agree on a verdict on a charge of deliberate homicide but convicted him of negligent homicide.

He was sentenced to 52 years in prison with 10 suspended, with District Judge Dan Boucher citing his lengthy criminal history and declaring him a persistent felony offender in imposing a 50-year sentence and adding a two-year enhancement for use of a weapon in a violent offense.

The prosecution this year, after the case was sent back to court in Hill County, amended the charges to negligent homicide with a sentencing enhancement for using a dangerous weapon in the offense.