By Alan Sorensen
Francine Spang testified in her brother's defense this morning that the pair were terrorized into staying with confessed murderer Reid Danell following the shooting the deaths of two Havre residents last September.
Jurors were given an early out Friday so attorneys for murder defendant Jacob Gary Spang could have more time to round up witnesses.
Jacob Spang, 19, is being tried for his alleged part in the murder of Kristi Walker, 30, and Kevin Caplette, 30, both of Havre. They were found shot to death at Walker's trailer home in the 1200 block of Sixth Street shortly before 1 p.m. on Sept. 16.
Spang is charged with two counts of deliberate homicide by application of the felony murder rule, two counts of intimidation by accountability, one count of tampering with evidence, and car theft.
Francine Spang, 16, is charged with the same offenses and is scheduled to go to trial in Havre later this month.
Danell pleaded guilty to two counts of deliberate homicide on May 15. He admitted that he was the one who fired the shots that killed Caplette and Walker.
The prosecution concluded its case shortly after 4 p.m. Thursday.
Defense attorney Carl White told 12th Judicial District Court Judge John Warner Friday afternoon that he found a stack of unserved subpoenas in his mail when he returned to his office during the noon break Friday. He said the stack included some subpoenas he had been led to believe were served.
White said it was strange that officers could find the same people when the prosecution wanted them but couldn't find them when it was for the defense.
White did call two witnesses to the stand before court was adjourned for the weekend. One was a man who sold Kristi Walker a pistol-grip shotgun at a gun show in the Holiday Village Shopping Center last year.
White also called Donny Ferguson, who testified that she was never Amanda Grant's roommate. Much of the prosecution's case is built on accounts of the murders that Grant said Ferguson told her. Ferguson denied dozens of specific statements attributed to her by Grant during questioning by prosecutor Joe Thaggard earlier in the trial.
On Friday, Ferguson said that she never told anyone that Spang tore the phone cords out of the walls at Walker's home the night of the shootings. Ferguson also testified Friday that she tried calling Walker after Danell told her the morning after the shootings that Walker and Caplette were dead. Ferguson agreed with White that she wouldn't have tried calling Walker if she had known the phones were ripped out.
Twelfth Judicial District Court Judge John Warner dismissed the jury shortly before 2:30 p.m. with repeated admonitions that they refrain from discussing the case with anyone. He reminded them that they had heard only one side of the argument and only the evidence presented by the prosecution.
Spang's lawyers opened his defense this
