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Hearings Set for Kalispell Shooting Suspect

By Beacon Staff

Two pretrial hearings have been set in the case of a man charged with killing his former girlfriend and her 15-year-old daughter just east of Kalispell on Christmas Day 2010.

District Judge Stewart Stadler scheduled an Aug. 23 hearing on Tyler Michael Miller’s motion to declare Montana’s death penalty unconstitutional.

Flathead County prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Miller for the shooting deaths of Jaimi Hurlbert, 35, and her daughter, Alyssa Burkett.

Miller’s attorneys say the state’s death penalty law is unconstitutional because sentencing powers are vested in judges, rather than juries.

Stadler also set a Sept. 28 hearing to determine if Miller is mentally fit to stand trial.

Defense expert Richard Wood cited “a long history of family instability, early diagnosis of attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity, and an almost complete failure on the part of both juvenile and adult institutions to treat his previously diagnosed problems.”

Neuropsychologist Christa Smelko said she believed Miller’s decision-making abilities were hampered by his childhood development, a psychiatric order, methamphetamine use and “potential alcohol exposure in utero.”

The county attorney’s office has arranged for two mental health professionals from the Montana State Hospital to evaluate Miller at the jail on Aug. 31. Their reports are due Sept. 21.

Miller remains jailed without bail. His trial is tentatively scheduled to start in November.