Judge Drops Murder Charges Against Martin City Man

Eight months after a Martin City man was arrested on a deliberate homicide charge, James William Quen is a free man.

On Dec. 31, Flathead County Attorney Travis Ahner filed a motion to dismiss charges against Quen just a week before he was set to stand trial in the April 2018 shooting death of Bradley Allen Winters. Judge Heidi Ulbricht formally dismissed the case later that afternoon.

In court documents and in a statement to the media, Ahner stated that a key witness in the case, the victim’s brother, was scheduled for a deposition on the morning of Dec. 28 and failed to appear. Ahner said that forensic evidence did not offer a clear picture of what happened the night of the shooting and that none of the witnesses were reliable. Based on that evidence, Ahner decided he “could not present a viable case to a jury.”

“Despite the solid response and investigation done by patrol and the detective division, the forensic evidence gathered could not account fully for the sequence of events that unfolded that night,” Ahner wrote. “Additionally, all of the individuals involved were on meth at the time of this incident so that eye-witnesses’ testimony could not provide a clear picture of what really took place.”

The dismissal came just three days after Ulbricht rejected a plea agreement that would have called for Quen to plead guilty to an amended felony negligent homicide charge in return for a 10-year suspended sentence.

But at the onset of the hearing, Ulbricht said she would not accept the recommended sentence because of Quen’s checkered past that includes a felony grand theft conviction, assorted violent offenses and a bench-warrant arrest for failing to appear at a court-ordered hearing in a separate felony case.

During the hearing, Ulbricht said she was also swayed by allegations discussed at an earlier bond hearing that were under investigation at one time in Flathead County but were never prosecuted. That information included an instance in which Quen allegedly fired more than 40 rounds of ammunition into a house. Quen’s attorney, Brian Smith, said those allegations were unfounded.

Following the Dec. 28 hearing, both sides said they were prepared to go to trial starting Jan. 7. The trial was expected to take a week.

According to court documents and law enforcement, deputies responded to the scene of a shooting in Hungry Horse at about 11:40 p.m. on April 25, 2018. When they arrived they found Winters, 33, dead from a single gunshot wound. The initial investigation revealed that there had been an altercation over money and clothing outside Winters’ home and at some point Quen reportedly took out a gun. Quen allegedly fired the gun multiple times, hitting Winters once in the chest.

Quen pleaded not guilty to a single charge of felony deliberate homicide in Flathead County District Court on May 31. Quen was expected to argue that he had shot Winters in self-defense.