Spang faces retrial in Havre

Hill County Attorney David Rice said today he plans to proceed with a retrial of Jacob Gary Spang.

"He is going to be brought back here and we are going to proceed with the scheduling process," Rice said.

Spang was sent to prison for 10 years in 2000 after he was convicted of two counts of intimidation by accountability and one count of tampering with physical evidence in connection with the murder of two Havre residents in 1999.

His convictions were overturned last Friday by the Montana Supreme Court, which found that Spang's rights were infringed upon during a interrogation by then Havre Assistant Police Chief Kevin Olson.

The court said Olson, who is now Havre police chief, should have stopped questioning Spang after Spang requested that a lawyer be present, and said statements Spang made after that could not be used against him in court.

Rice said the loss of the statements the Supreme Court said are not admissable hurts the state's case.

"It's a signifigant part of it, yeah," he said.

"We plan to proceed with the other evidence," Rice said. "He made a previous statement."