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96-624

No. 96-624 IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF MONTANA 1997

STATE OF MONTANA, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. CARL SIDNEY RACE, Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL FROM:

District Court of the Sixteenth Judicial District, In and for the County of Custer, Honorable Kenneth R. Wilson, Judge Presiding.

COUNSEL OF RECORD: For Appellant: Derik Pomeroy; Morgan, Cameron & Weaver, Bozeman, Montana For Respondent: Honorable Joseph P. Mazurek, Attorney General; Elizabeth Griffing, Assistant Attorney General, Helena, Montana Gary Bunke, Custer County Attorney, Miles City, Montana

Submitted on Briefs: September 17, 1997 Decided: October 21, 1997 Filed:

__________________________________________ Clerk
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Chief Justice J. A. Turnage delivered the Opinion of the Court. The Sixteenth Judicial District Court, Custer County, accepted Carl Sidney Race's plea of guilty to two counts of deliberate homicide and two counts of attempted deliberate homicide. The court sentenced Race to four consecutive life terms, plus forty years' imprisonment for use of a weapon in all four offenses, and declared him ineligible for parole. Race appeals. We affirm. The issues are: 1. Did the District Court commit reversible error by ordering defense counsel to provide the court with a complete copy of the defense psychiatrist's report when Race intended to have the psychiatrist testify at the sentencing hearing? 2. Did the court properly exercise its discretion with respect to Race's claim that he was seriously mentally ill? 3. Did the court err in not awarding Race credit for time served in jail? On the evening of October 21, 1995, Race went to the home of his estranged wife's sister and her family outside Miles City, Montana, and shot all four people living there. He then poured an accelerant, believed to be gasoline, on the victims' bodies and set them on fire. One of the victims managed to escape to a neighbor's house after being shot, and another managed to escape after he had been set on fire. Those two victims survived Race's attack. The other two died as a result of their gunshot wounds and burns. The two surviving victims, who had known Race for over twenty years, identified him as the assailant. Race was arrested in Texas a week later and was extradited to Montana on two charges of deliberate homicide, two charges of attempted deliberate homicide, aggravated burglary, and arson. At the State's request, the court ordered a psychiatric examination to determine whether Race was capable of standing trial and whether he was capable of possessing the requisite mental state at the time of the crimes. After a two-day examination, the psychiatrist, Dr. Stratford, concluded that Race was competent to stand trial and that he suffered from no mental disease or defect. Stratford further stated his belief that Race had the capacity to act purposely or knowingly and to appreciate the criminality of his conduct at the time of the crimes charged. In May 1996, Race and the State entered a plea agreement by which Race pled guilty to two counts of deliberate homicide and two counts of attempted deliberate homicide. The State agreed to drop the charges of arson and aggravated burglary and not to recommend a sentence of death. The defense gave notice of its intent to present testimony at Race's sentencing hearing concerning the results of an independent psychiatric examination of Race by Joseph D. Rich, M.D. Noting that the presentence investigation report contained only
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page 7 of Rich's report of his examination of Race, and reasoning that under

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Montana Law