Focus sharpens as murder trial nears

SANDPOINT — The state is proposing jury instructions parsing through the legal thresholds for justifiable homicide and self-defense as a Bonner County murder case nears trial.

Bonner County Prosecutor Louis Marshall also signaled concern that defense counsel for Michael Ryan McDermott may be planning to “assassinate” the character of alleged murder victim Robert Cameroen Hegseth Wohali when jurors take up the case on Sept. 30, according to documents filed in 1st District Court.

McDermott, 47, is accused of shooting Wohali to death in March 2018. A Bonner County grand jury indicted McDermott on charges of second-degree murder and failing to notify authorities of a death.

McDermott pleaded not guilty to the felony offenses earlier this year.

Sandpoint Police said Hegseth Wohali, 26, was shot at Evergreen Towing and his body was concealed in a makeshift grave at an undisclosed location south of the city several days after the homicide. McDermott is accused of killing Hegseth Wohali deliberately but without premeditation.

Hegseth Wohali, according to social media posts, may have been attempting to recover a Chevrolet Camaro from a former girlfriend around time of his slaying.

The state is proposing jury instructions which emphasize the conditions which need to be present in order to deem a homicide justifiable and the bounds of self-defense. For the homicide to be justifiable, jurors would have to find that McDermott reasonably believed he was in imminent danger of death or grave bodily harm and acted only in response to that belief, according to the proposed jury instruction.

Another proposed instruction would advise jurors that evidence has been admitted concerning the reputation of Hegseth Wohali for being “quarrelsome” and “violent” or that he was known to carry a knife or ax.

“If you believe this evidence, you may consider it only for the limited purpose of making your determination as to the reasonableness of the defendant’s beliefs under the circumstances then apparent to the defendant, and then only if the defendant was aware of such reputation,” the proposed jury instruction reads.

During a Sept. 18 hearing on the proposed jury instruction, Marshall said the defense’s witness list looked as though populated with people who would assail Hegseth Wohali’s reputation.

The proposed jury instructions are pending.

Keith Kinnaird can be reached by email at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow him on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.