Supreme court sends man back to Havre for another murder trial

A Havre man is back in state District Court to face a charge that he murdered his brother in 2013.

Shane Johnson was convicted of negligent homicide in 2014 in the shooting death of his brother, Travis Johnson, a year before.

The Montana Supreme Court sent the case back to Havre for another trial.

State District Judge Matthew Cuffe, who appeared via video, read Johnson, who appeared via video from the Hill County Detention Center his rights in a hearing this morning and said a trial would be held in the last part of May or early June. No specific date was set.

In the 2014 trial, the prosecution argued that Johnson, after getting into an argument that included a physical fight with Travis Johnson while both had been drinking together at home, 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.

Johnson said his brother came into his room and took the gun, and he was trying to get it away from Travis Johnson to prevent himself from hurting himself or others, and he 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 District Judge Dan Boucher citing his lengthy criminal history and declaring him a persistent felony offender in imposing a 50-year sentence with 10 suspended and adding a two-year enhancement for use of a weapon in a violent offense.

Johnson appealed his conviction.

In the appeal, Jonson argued that 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 Supreme Court agreed that select errors had been made and overturned the verdict, sending the case back to District Court in Havre for a new trial.