Trial ordered in shooting

SANDPOINT — A Cocolalla man was ordered Monday to stand trial for the killing of Michael Wyatt Smith last fall.

Judge Justin Julian found there was sufficient evidence to justify trying Austin Blake Thrasher on a charge of first-degree murder. Thrasher is scheduled to be arraigned in 1st District Court on April 16.

Thrasher, 19, invoked his right to remain silent during the five-hour preliminary hearing in Bonner County Magistrate Court.

Thrasher’s 22-year-old wife and alleged accomplice, Jennifer, testified as a state’s witness, drawing repeated objections from Austin Thrasher’s attorney, Chief Public Defender Isabella Robertson.

Robertson argued state law forbids spouses from testifying for or against one another in a criminal proceeding, but Julian overruled the objections because higher courts have consistently held that the rules of evidence trump state code.

Austin Thrasher and Christopher Robin Garlin are accused of leading Smith into the woods near Thrasher’s home last September. Austin Thrasher is accused of shooting Smith, a 19-year-old who was living in Hope, in the torso and head with a .357 Ruger Blackhawk revolver.

Garlin allegedly confessed to witnessing the shooting and Jennifer Thrasher led detectives to Smith’s shallow grave. Garlin and Jennifer Thrasher are charged with being accessories to the killing.

Jennifer Thrasher told the court she did not witness the shooting, but admitted assisting with the removal of Smith’s body and its burial on property her family used to own in the Rapid Lightning Creek drainage.

She denied having any beforehand knowledge that Smith would be killed after they picked him up to drink beer and play video games at their home in Cocolalla.

“They decided that they wanted to go for a walk,” Jennifer Thrasher said, referring to her husband, Garlin and Smith.

Jennifer Thrasher testified that she later heard the unmistakable report of three gunshots and was later summoned by phone to a ravine where her husband and Garlin eventually met her on an all-terrain vehicle.

Bonner County Prosecutor Louis Marshall asked her where Smith was.

“He was on the back of the four-wheeler,” she replied. “He was dead.”

Bonner County Coroner Kitt Rose testified that either the body shot or the head shot could have been independently fatal.

However, there was a dearth of direct physical evidence because much of it is still being analyzed at an Idaho State Police forensics lab.

The suspected murder weapon is being analyzed over for fingerprint and DNA evidence, as are forensic evidence gleaned from Smith’s autopsy and swabs of blood stains found on the ATV, sheriff’s Det. Kurt Lehman testified.

Robertson argued there was insufficient evidence to sustain the allegation that her client planned the murder or even carried it out.

“There’s no clear evidence as to who pulled the trigger,” she said.

Marshall conceded that much of the evidence presented during the hearing was circumstantial, but there was enough of it to bind Austin Thrasher over to stand trial.

“The evidence all points to Austin as the trigger man,” said Marshall.

A motive for the killing came into sharper relief during the hearing, but only slightly. Austin Thrasher reportedly had once had a romantic relationship with a 16-year-old girl whom Smith had begun dating.

But whether Austin Thrasher’s relationship with the teen endured after he married is apparently a matter of dispute.

Despite the paucity of direct evidence during the hearing, Julian ruled that it was not fatal to the state’s case at this stage of the proceedings.

“The evidence is overwhelming that this was a scheme Mr. Garlin and Mr. Thrasher engaged in,” Julian said.

Moreover, Garlin did not appear to have much independent motive to kill Smith, while Austin Thrasher did — sexual jealousy, which Julian said was among the oldest motives known to man.

Jennifer Thrasher and Garlin each waived their right to preliminary hearings and are scheduled to be tried separately in July.

A plea agreement has been reached in Jennifer Thrasher’s case, although the terms of which have not yet been disclosed. Plea negotiations are under way in Garlin’s case, Marshall said.

All three suspects remain jailed while the cases are pending.