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Part of Government’s Case in Florence Murder Dismissed

By Beacon Staff

MISSOULA – A federal judge on Tuesday dismissed a portion of the government’s case against a man accused of killing three women at a Florence salon, saying the charges cannot be prosecuted under the statute of limitations.

Brian Weber, 33, is charged in the November 2001 slayings of Brenda Patch, Cynthia Paulus and Dorothy Harris, who were found in the salon with their throats slit. He is accused of killing the women in an effort to collect a drug debt owed by someone affiliated with the victims.

U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy dismissed the first two counts of an October 2006 indictment, which details a drug conspiracy that ended in December 2001 but does not contain the murder charges. That means the five-year statute of limitations on the drug charges expired at the end of 2006.

But the indictment was sealed for 18 months, and Weber was not advised of the charges against him until after the statute of limitations had run.

Prosecutors say the indictment was sealed in part because the investigation was ongoing and they were continuing to mount evidence and interview new witnesses. They also argue that they were trying to protect the privacy of the defendants and ensure that potentially prejudicial drug charges against them were not made public any sooner than necessary.

But Molloy ruled that the government had the evidence and the witnesses it needed to go forward on the drug charges in October 2006, and that its reasons for sealing the indictment “ring hollow.”

The judge kept intact the six counts related to the murders — three counts of violent crimes in aid of racketeering and three counts of murder while engaged in drug trafficking.

Weber is set for trial March 1.

Weber’s co-defendant, Lincoln Benavides of Boise, Idaho, recently accepted an offer from the federal government and pleaded guilty to the drug charges. In exchange, prosecutors will dismiss the murder counts.