Court Opinion

ID: 9511676
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 22:06:57.848222+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:05:07.632489
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE MORRIS
dissents.
¶22 I agree with the District Court that the Three Forks City Court abused its discretion in granting the State’s motion to change the place of trial. I respectfully dissent from this Court’s refusal to provide Schillinger with a trial of first instance in Three Forks City Court on the grounds that he already has received his requisite trial by jury in the Madison County Justice Court. The District Court properly concluded that “the deprivation of a proper jury trial in the city court cannot be cured by a jury trial de novo in the district court because the defendant would only have one of the two proper jury trials to which the defendant is constitutionally entitled.”
¶23 Article II, Section 24 of the Montana Constitution guarantees criminal defendants the right to a “trial by an impartial jury of the county or district in which the offense is alleged to have been committed, subject to the right of the state to have a change of venue for any of the causes for which the defendant may obtain the same.” Section 46-3-111(1), MCA, similarly provides that the “place of trial must be in the county where the charge is filed unless otherwise provided by law.” Section 46-13-203, MCA, allows courts to change the location of a trial after determining that there exists in the county where the State has initiated the prosecution “such prejudice that a fair trial cannot be had ....”
¶24 The District Court correctly determined on appeal that the Three Forks City Court’s improper change of location invalidated Schillinger’s Madison County trial. The District Court remanded the matter to Three Forks City Court to afford Schillinger with a legitimate trial of first instance. In doing so, the District Court affirmed Schillinger’s “constitutional right to two jury trials-one in the city court of proper venue and one in the district court of the county.” The Court ignores this constitutional right by its conclusion that a trial de novo in district court cures all. ¶ 5, ¶ 20.1 would affirm the District Court’s determination that Montana law entitles Schillinger to a legitimate trial of first instance in Three Forks City Court.