Troy McDonald, a 20-year-old developmentally disabled man who shot and killed Gerald Sirucek and Catherine Madplume in the apparent robbery plot, will be turned over to the state Department of Health and Human Services for 30 years, with 50 more years under state supervision.
His sentence will be served, at least initially, at a new lockdown treatment facility now under construction at the Montana Developmental Center in Boulder.
District Judge Kim Christopher described the crimes as “cold-blooded stupidity” and said it was clear to her that Green used McDonald as a “weapon” to shoot and kill the victims in the plot Green devised.
The two victims were students, Sirucek at Salish Kootenai College, Madplume a senior at Two Eagle River School in Pablo.
Prosecutors said Sirucek was murdered to steal the cash he received earlier that day from a student loan. Madplume was killed when she went looking for Sirucek after he disappeared during an all-night house party near Ronan.
McDonald got considerably more leniency because of his cooperation with prosecutors, and because of his lifelong neurological disability, called “autism spectrum disorder,” which made him less criminally responsible for the murders than Green, even though McDonald did the shooting, the prosecutor said.
In an unusual plea deal, McDonald agreed to testify against Green at trial in order to be placed in DHHS custody.
The new Montana Developmental Center is not a prison. Staff members do not carry weapons and “clients,” as the prisoners are called, are kept locked up in a secure facility most of the time. They are escorted by unarmed but trained custodians when they leave the lockdown facility for medical care, group therapy or other visits outside the segregated shelter.
McDonald will be the first convicted murderer to be in custody, a DHHS spokesman said Thursday.
Representatives of the victims' families made emotional pleas to the judge Thursday to sentence Green to life without parole. They were not called to testify at McDonald's sentencing hearing.
“She liked to go to powwows and basketball tournaments with her sister. Now she is gone. My kids miss her; she was their role model,” said Madplume's mother, Carolyn Madplume of Browning, while sobbing quietly into a tissue.
Sirucek's brother, Josh King of Polson, told the judge that the murders and aftermath have “ripped our family to pieces.”
“Gerald left two kids who have never seen him,” King said.
Both Carolyn Madplume and King said their respective families wanted to see Green behind bars for the rest of his life.
As for McDonald, a DHHS attorney at the hearing, Paulette Kohman, told the judge the agency would prefer having the discretion of placing McDonald in a setting appropriate to his behavioral and social progress while in the institution. That could mean he would be allowed into supervised but not locked-down group-home cottages at the institution. It could ultimately mean he could be released to a group home in a community before his 30-year sentence is served.
But forensic psychiatrist William Stratford of Missoula, who was called as a defense witness at the sentencing, advised against it. He said McDonald, despite his autistism and the likelihood his behavior will improve in a “structured” setting at Boulder, remains a threat to the public because of his crimes and should be placed in the most secure facility at Boulder, under lock and key 24 hours a day.
Christopher agreed, making it a condition of his sentence to DHHS. This leaves open the possibility that should McDonald be “responsive to treatment,” as Kohman said was possible, he could overcome his disability to an extent that keeping him there goes against the agency's mission of helping clients.
He could then be sent to prison to serve the rest of his 30 years in custody.
Christopher emphasized that McDonald be locked up for 30 years, wherever he is placed.
Even when his mother and father testified on his behalf, McDonald slumped back against his chair in the witness box, his hands manacled, his eyes downcast, his face expressionless. He made no sign of emotion when he was escorted back to the jail.
Green, on the other hand, shook his head negatively when he was led away to began serving his life sentences.
Green apologized to the family members at Thursday's hearing, but continued to deny his accountability for murdering either Sirucek or Madplume. He did, however, admit he sliced Sirucek's throat as he robbed him and acknowledged that he helped move the body to hide it from view.
Reporter John Stromnes can be reached at 1-800-366-7186 or at jstromnes@missoulian.com
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