Police: Race may have been a factor
Tim MacDonald Havre Daily News tmacdonald@havredailynews.com
A document filed in Hill County District Court concerning the Nov. 25 murder of a Minot, N. D., man in Havre reveals a complex story of deception and alcohol-clouded memories. At about 1:20 a.m. on that date police and an ambulance responded to the home of Melissa “Missy” Snow at 1103 1/2 Second St. A female had called from a nearby home to report a dead man at the Snow residence. When police arrived they found the body of Lloyd Kvelstad on the living room floor, apparently been beaten to death, according to the police investigation. Jason Joseph Main Jr. Was subsequently arrested in connection with the killing. Main, however, claimed he had been sleeping with Snow at the time of the murder. Snow initially agreed with this story, but later recanted. Along with Snow, Main and Kvelstad, Kim Norquay Jr. And Billy The Boy were also present in the home at the time of the killing, but it is believed that The Boy was asleep. Norquay told investigators that Main had committed the crime. That he had beaten and kicked the victim in the head and ribs and twice he had put him in “sleeper” choke holds until the victim passed out, the document says Papers filed by police in the Hill County District Court said the victim was so badly beaten that he could only be identified by a tattoo on his arm. Norquay told police that the fight started over a racial slur against Native Americans involving Thanksgiving. Main is Native American and Kvelstad is Caucasian, according to police papers. The initial argument also involved Christopher Columbus coming to America and the American Indian Movement (AIM), an activist group to which Main claimed to belong. Norquay said the fight started when Kvelstad claimed he was Native American, the information says. Norquay said that he and Snow had tried to break up the fight. Snow said that after the fight she had tried to clean the pools of blood but was unsuccessful. She originally told officers that the towels she used were in the Dumpster, but later Admitted that they were still in the house, the police report says. Police were called when Nathan Oats, his wife Georgetta and Georgetta’s daughter Ivy Snow arrived. Nathan checked the victim and believed he was dead. He then asked “one of the females” to call 911 from the neighbors’ home. Nathan also tackled Main and held him at the scene when he tried to leave, police documents say. Main had originally claimed that he was in bed with Melissa Snow and Nathan Oats had come into the room and dragged him out of the bed. This was denied by Norquay who said the victim was already dead when the Oats family arrived. Police took Norquay’s clothing and noticed that some of it was blood stained, they also noticed that the draw string was missing from his sweat shirt, a similar string was found around the victim’s neck, according to the document. An autopsy performed at the State Crime Lab in Missoula revealed that Kvelstad had died from multiple blunt force traumas and possible strangulation, the document says. The document requests that Main be indicted and charged with felony deliberate homicide, punishable by not less than 10 years in prison and not more than 100. There is also a potential additional penalty if it is found that the killing was racially motivated of not less than two or more than 10 years in prison, according to the information. Assistant Chief of Police George Tate said today that the matter is still under investigation. “There is a possibility that other individuals may be charged. We are not ruling that out, but we are not to that point at this time,” Tate said. He would not comment on any of the details of the investigation while it is ongoing.
