In less than a week, three judges have been assigned to the Evergreen child-murder case after prosecutors made a motion to remove Judge David M. Ortley from overseeing the proceedings.
Judge Heidi J. Ulbricht will now take over the case in Flathead County District Court. The motion to substitute judges was signed by Ortley on March 5. The substitution will likely move the trial date once again, but on Thursday it was unclear when it would be rescheduled.
On Feb. 26, not long after Brandon Lee Walter Newberry, 21, pleaded not guilty to charges of deliberate homicide in the death of 2-year-old Forrest Groshelle, attorneys Vicki Frazier and Greg Rapkock filed a motion to substitute Judge Ted O. Lympus, who was initially assigned to the case. The motion was approved and Ortley took over.
On March 2, the state filed its own motion to substitute Ortley. The motion, which was signed by Flathead County Deputy Attorney Andrew Clegg, did not give a reason for the substitution.
According to Montana state law, each party is entitled to one judge substitution.
Newberry was charged after the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office received a call about an unresponsive child on Feb. 17. During the call, Newberry could be heard screaming in the background, “it’s my fault, it’s my fault,” according to court records.
When police arrived, they found bruising, scratching and abrasions on Groshelle’s body. An autopsy revealed that the child had been hit multiple times in the abdomen, causing perienteritis, a laceration of the small intestine.
In an interview with sheriff’s deputies, the mother, Takara Juntunen, revealed that Newberry had been watching Groshelle on a daily basis while she was at work. Juntunen also said that her son had been vomiting blood in the preceding days, suggesting that the assault may have occurred between Feb. 11 and 17, according to police. During an interview with police, Newberry admitted that he had been “roughhousing” with the child the previous day.
If convicted, Newberry could face up to 100 years in prison.