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Judge Shoots Down Effort to Quash Warrant in Evergreen Murder Case

Motion will allow prosecutors to introduce Brandon Newberry’s cell phone as evidence in the Evergreen child-murder case

By Justin Franz

An effort by lawyers to dismiss a potentially important piece of evidence in the Evergreen child-murder case has been denied by a Flathead County District Court judge.

On April 21, Judge Heidi Ulbricht dismissed a motion by Brandon Walter Lee Newberry’s attorneys to quash a warrant for the accused murderer’s cell phone that is currently in a personal property locker inside the Flathead County Detention Center. Prosecutors want to inspect the phone’s call, text and Internet history as they prepare for the case against the man who allegedly beat his girlfriend’s 2-year-old son to death earlier this year.

Just a week after Newberry was arrested, the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office applied for a warrant to look at his Samsung phone. Judge David Ortley, one of three judges who have been assigned to the case since it was opened on Feb. 18, approved the order.

However, Newberry’s attorneys, Greg Rapkock and Vicki Frazier, quickly filed a motion trying to get the warrant for the phone thrown out. In their motion they argue that the warrant violated Newberry’s privacy and that a hearing with all involved should be held before approving it. Rapkock also wrote that the court approved the warrant with “information and perspective (that) is hand-fed to them by a biased governmental actor.”

Prosecutors and the defense went back and forth on the matter through March and April and this week Ulbricht sided with the County Attorney’s office. In her order she said the defense’s motion to quash was warrantless and that Newberry’s constitutional rights had not been violated. Ulbricht also scolded the defense for unnecessarily attacking the court in previous briefs.

“A lawyer should demonstrate respect for the legal system and for those who serve it,” she wrote. “Vituperative attacks on the legal system and the Court are not compelling and are not a substitute for reasoned argument.”

Newberry was charged with deliberate homicide after he allegedly beat his girlfriend’s 2-year-old son, Forrest Groshelle, in February. A trial has been tentatively set for Sept. 21.