Montana v. Egelhoff

Facts

In July 1992, the Respondent was picking mushrooms in the Yaak region of northwest Montana when he made friends with Robert Pavola and John Christenson. On July 12, the three sold the mushrooms they had collected and spent the rest of the day and evening drinking. At 9:00 p.m. the three left a private party in Christenson’s 1974 Ford Galaxy station wagon. Respondent was seen buying beer at 9:20 p.m. and recalled “sitting on a hill or bank passing a bottle of Black Velvet back and forth” with Christenson. At midnight, the Lincoln County Sheriff responded to reports of a possible drunk driver. An officer found the Ford in a ditch along U.S. Highway 2, Pavola and Christenson were dead in the front seat each with a single gunshot wound to the head. The respondent was laying in the backseat yelling obscenities. An hour later respondent’s blood-alcohol content measured .36 percent. Additionally, gun shot residue was found on his hands and respondent’s .38 caliber handgun with four loaded rounds and two empty casings were found on the floor of the car near the brake pedal. Respondent’s defense at trial was that an unidentified fourth person must have committed the murders because his intoxication rendered him physically incapable of committing the murders and he was unable to recall the events of the night of July 12.