Tim Leeds Havre Daily News tleeds@havredailynews.com
The murder trial of Kim A. Norquay Jr. Of Havre, born in 1979, was scheduled to start in state District Court in Havre today after a full day of jury selection Wednesday. Norquay was charged with deliberate homicide in the Nov. 11, 2006, death of Lloyd Kvelstad. A pool of some 70 to 80 potential jurors checked in for jury selection starting at 8:30 a. m. Wednesday, spending all day in the Hill County Courthouse as the jury selection proceeded. Judge Laurie McKinnon of Shelby, who is presiding over the trial, announced at 5:07 p.m. that a jury had been selected. The trial is expected to last two weeks. Norquay was originally charged with felony counts of deliberate homicide by accountability and tampering with physical evidence and a misdemeanor charge of obstructing a peace officer on July 6, 2007. The charges were amended on Nov. 2, 2007, to deliberate homicide and tampering with physical evidence, Both felonies. The charges stemmed from an incident on the weekend of Thanksgiving 2006, when Kvelstad was found dead at a local residence, with an autopsy finding he died of a combination of blunt force trauma and strangulation. Also charged in the case were James Joseph Main Jr. Of Hays, born in 1960, and Mellissa R. Snow, aka Missy Snow, of Havre, born in 1968. Main was originally charged on Dec. 8, 2006, with homicide including a charge that the death may have been racially motivated, which could have added two to 10 years to his sentence if he were convicted. After Norquay’s charge was amended to deliberate homicide, Main’s charge was also amended, dropping the racial motivation clause. Main’s trial is scheduled to start in February. Snow, in whose residence the assaults leading to Kvelstad’s death are alleged to have occurred, was charged with tampering with evidence, a felony, and obstructing a peace officer, a misdemeanor. Snow was accused of cleaning up blood in her residence after Kvelstad’s death and misrepresenting facts to investigating officers. Snow pleaded guilty in a plea agreement on Oct. 1, 2007, to the tampering with evidence charge. She was sentenced in January to an 18-month deferred imposition of sentence. In September, Judge David Rice revoked the deferred imposition of sentence and sentenced Snow to three years with the state Department of Corrections with the last year suspended after she admitted violating conditions of her release including using alcohol, failing to pay fees and failing to obtain a chemical dependency evaluation and counseling.
