Christopher Michael Hansen pleaded guilty to accountability to deliberate homicide on May 4, nearly a year after he helped Robert Wittal kill Wade Allen Rautio on Peters Ridge near Creston.
Hansen appeared in Flathead County District Court before Judge Dan Wilson. He is scheduled to be sentenced July 13.
Hansen signed a binding plea agreement. Prosecutors and the defense are expected to recommend a 50-year sentence to the Montana State Prison. If Wilson were to sentence Hansen to prison for a longer period of time, the defendant would have the opportunity to withdraw his plea and go to trial.
Hansen is one of four people accused of being involved in the May 2016 murder of Rautio. According to court documents, Melisa Ann Crone ordered Wittal, Hansen and David Toman to kill Rautio, who was living in her Evergreen home at the time. Wittal was charged with deliberate homicide, and Crone, Hansen and Toman were charged with accountability to deliberate homicide. Crone was also charged with criminal possession of drugs.
During his change of plea hearing, Hansen testified to watching Wittal chase Rautio with a knife near Peters Ridge. At one point, Rautio tried to flee and Hansen shoved him back. Wittal, who had lost the first knife he used to assault Rautio, pinned the victim down and screamed, “Somebody give me a knife.” Hansen reached into his pocket and pulled out a small pocketknife that Wittal used to finish killing Rautio.
According to law enforcement, Rautio was stabbed more than two dozen times, including eight times in the back and once in the head. Rautio was also stabbed in the jugular in what prosecutors described as an “immediately lethal wound.”
Rautio’s body was left in a creek. Hansen testified that he hid the pocketknife after the murder.
Wittal was convicted of homicide at trial in October 2016 and sentenced to 110 years in prison earlier this year. On March 15, Crone pleaded guilty to felony criminal distribution of dangerous drugs. In return, prosecutors agreed to drop the charge for accountability to homicide. Crone will be sentenced on May 25, and prosecutors and the defense are expected to jointly recommend a 40-year sentence to the Montana Women’s Prison with 20 years suspended.
Toman pleaded no contest to accountability to deliberate homicide on April 27 and will be sentenced on July 13. Prosecutors are expected to recommend a 30-year sentenced to the Montana State Prison with 15 years suspended.