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Didn't see this one> Fatal Shooting East of Fairfield; Great Falls Man In Custody

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BigSky

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5
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Central Montana
By Cindy Dauwalder
Published: Monday, August 20, 2012 4:25 PM CDT
Donald Alan Kline has been identified as the victim of a fatal shooting East of Fairfield Saturday evening. Martin Lau, of Wilson Road, North of Great Falls, was taken into custody by the Teton County Sheriff's Office at the scene.

This trial is suppose to start Jan 27, 2014

What article leaves out that Kline had the Sheriff called for Domestic Violence the night before. He was to stay out of house until going back to the oil fields to work 2 days later. He had trashed the owner house and had hit her. The Deputies failed to arrest Kline. At time of death Kline was very drunk. Kline had been abusing the owner for a couple of years.
http://www.fairfieldsuntimes.com/articles/2012/08/20/news/doc5032aaf218136885923178.txt
 
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BigSky

New member
Joined
Jan 23, 2014
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Location
Central Montana
Update

/www.greatfallstribune.com/article/20140127/NEWS01/301270024/Homicide-trial-Teton-County-killing-delayed


Lau
Written by
Eric Dietrich
Tribune Staff Writer

Filed Under

News
Local News
Teton County
Great Falls

The trial of Martin Lau, the Great Falls financial adviser accused of killing a man in a 2012 shooting near Fairfield, has been delayed pending legal action that will decide whether Lau is required to testify at trial to claim he acted in self-defense. Lau is charged with deliberate homicide.

Lau’s trial was initially scheduled to begin Monday but delayed last week after prosecutors requested a continuance so they could appeal some of Teton County District Judge Robert Olson’s pretrial rulings to the Montana Supreme Court.

The key issue, said Ken Olson, Lau’s attorney, is whether Lau will be required to take the witness stand to claim self-defense in the case, in which he has admitted to shooting Don Kline to death in an altercation at a Teton County home.

The Montana Legislature amended state law in 2009 to expand legal allowances for self-defense claims, enacting language that forces prosecutors to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that defendants claiming self-defense as a justification for force have acted unreasonably.

However, because the revised law is new enough to be relatively untested, little precedent exists to guide legal proceedings where defendants hope to take advantage of the new provision.

Olson said he and the attorneys prosecuting the case have tussled over whether Lau will be required to testify at trial in order to formally put his self-defense claim forward. Testifying, Olson said, would give prosecutors the opportunity to cross-examine Lau’s story, putting him at risk of incriminating himself.

Olson said Judge Robert Olson ruled last week in favor of Lau, saying a previously filed statement was adequate to claim self-defense. Prosecutors responded by requesting the trial be delayed so they could ask the Montana Supreme Court to consider the overturning Judge Olson’s decision.
 
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