LEWISTOWN – A man convicted in the 1979 beating death of a teenager on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation asked a judge Monday to consider evidence to support his claim that a group of girls was actually responsible, bringing forward witnesses and claims overwhelmingly rejected four years ago by a parole board.
Barry Beach wants District Judge E. Wayne Phillips to overturn his 100-year sentence for Kim Nees’ death. Beach’s supporters, led by a group that seeks to undo wrongful convictions, have successfully petitioned the Montana Supreme Court for the hearing that they hope could lead to a new trial.
The judge appeared intrigued by a key witness who said another woman once took responsibility for a crime that shook the small town of Poplar.
Judy Grayhawk told the judge that her sister-in-law, Maude Grayhawk, acknowledged in 2004 that she was involved in Nees’ killing. The conversation between the women was prompted after investigators with Centurion Ministries, the group helping Beach, started poking into the old crime and sought out Maude Grayhawk for an interview.
The testimony backed up Beach’s claim that a group of girls with ties to the local police force through relatives is actually responsible.
“She said ‘I didn’t kill that girl but I kicked her in the head a few times. I guess I was the one who lured her down there,” Judy Grayhawk said of a brief conversation that lasted a few minutes in which Maude Grayhawk was despondent and suicidal over the situation.
Prosecutors objected to her evidence as hearsay, and argued that Beach’s team did not do enough to get Maude Grayhawk herself into the courtroom through a court order. Beach attorney Peter Camiel said efforts failed because Maude Grayhawk is currently in a Denver jail for drunken driving and other violations.
The judge begrudgingly allowed the testimony after briefly considering suspending the hearing until he order Maude Grayhawk returned to Montana to testify. Phillips said he found it compelling that Judy Grayhawk would come forward with the information, even though it is tearing her family apart and prompting her husband to threaten divorce.
“I appreciate very much the route you have taken,” the judge told her. “I think the truth is worth it.”
Another witness, Janice White Eagle Johnson, a former co-worker of Maude Grayhawk, testified that she appeared afraid to talk to Centurion Ministries investigators who showed up at her workplace seeking an interview and avoided them.
Johnson testified Monday that when she asked Maude Grayhawk why, she indicated she had something to hide by saying, “My car was down there that night. Those girls had my car.”
Prosecutors with the Montana attorney general’s office quizzed both women why they never took such information to the police and challenged the credibility of the statements.
Judge Phillips will decide whether the evidence is sufficient for Beach to pursue legal claims that could lead to a new trial. Phillips also has the power to declare Beach innocent, but defense attorneys acknowledge that threshold is high.
Much of the evidence Beach is bringing forward was already rejected in a separate 2007 hearing before the Montana Board of Pardons and Parole.
That board made it clear after a multi-day hearing that included testimony from the key players, including Beach himself, that it believed Beach was guilty of the crime. The board pointed to a detailed confession Beach said he does not remember providing — even though he can remember with great detail events leading up to the confession recorded by police in Louisiana who picked up Beach on another issue.
In that lengthy confession from 1983, Beach describes forcefully trying to kiss Nees and getting angry at her for fighting back. In the transcripts, Beach described hitting her with a wrench and a tire iron, and then thinking, “Oh my God, what have I done?” after checking Nees’ pulse and finding she was dead.
Prosecutors have argued Beach has conveniently forgotten the confession.
Beach’s supporters argue the confession was coerced and say Beach’s reaction is not unlikely in such situations.