Page 17 - Flathead Beacon // 9.14.16

move the party to the camper-trailer Tash and Raugust shared in the nearby Swamp Creek area.
After idling outside Miller’s Market, across the highway from the Naughty Pine, Ross pulled out onto Highway 200 and headed for the campsite. But Rau- gust said he had second thoughts about the late-night party; knowing he had an early-morning painting job, he hopped out of Ross’ car 200 yards from the bar, near the intersection of Fir Street, and walked to an acquain- tance’s house to crash.
He says he was sleeping at the time of the murder, and didn’t hear the crack of a single-barrel shotgun blast, which killed Tash and set into motion a chain of events that form the substance of his 18-year resolve to prove his innocence.
Raugust says he didn’t learn of his best friend’s mur- der until the following day, when police arrived at the job site to arrest him. The arresting o cer said Raugust’s reaction was disbelief and bewilderment.
At trial, Ross testi ed that he never stopped to let Raugust out of the car, and that back at the camp- er-trailer he watched Raugust shoot Tash in cold blood.
But the defense team contends that the newly dis- covered testimony of a Sanders County sheri ’s deputy, Wayne Abbey, would have supported Raugust’s alibi at trial, but it was never divulged to Raugust’s lawyer, John Putikka.
The deputy, who performed a bar check at the Naughty Pine the morning of the murder and encoun- tered Raugust, Tash and Ross, testi ed at trial that he was visiting with the owner and saw Ross’ AMC Eagle parked across the street.
In later interviews with investigators and attorneys from the Innocence Project, Abbey said he glanced out the window a second time and saw Ross’ car stop brie y about 200 yards down the highway. He watched as the brake lights came on and the dome light illuminated before Ross again sped o .
The prosecution never asked Abbey about his obser- vation while he was on the stand in 1998, and the defense didn’t know about it. Without any knowledge of Rau- gust’s alibi, it never occurred to Abbey that the detail might be important.
Attorneys for Raugust say it’s a key piece of evidence supporting Raugust’s alibi, and that the only testimony undermining it at trial was that of Ross, the man they say
is the true killer, and Rick Scarborough, at whose home Raugust says he slept.
“We couldn’t be happier for Richard,” Montana Inno- cence Project Legal Director Larry Mansch said Sept. 8. “Today is the result of many years of dedicated work toward a just cause. Our belief in Richard’s innocence never wavered.”
tscott@ atheadbeacon.com
Richard Raugust is greeted by his mother, Marci Jones, after his release last December. BEACON FILE PHOTO
SEPTEMBER 14, 2016 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM
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