“There should be no plea bargain for murder,” one of Craft's brothers, Shonto Pete of Spokane, told District Court Judge C.B. McNeil from the gallery, where more than a dozen law enforcement officers ringed the packed courtroom.
The family wanted the case to go to trial, said Craft's mother, Diana “Weezee” Cote. They wanted a conviction and a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
“That's up to the Department of Corrections,” McNeil told her from the bench, “but 25 years is probably accurate” before Birmingham could be paroled.
However, the family was told, becoming eligible for parole and being paroled are two different things.
“I assure you that 100 years in the Montana State Prison is a serious sentence,” McNeil told her.
Asked about the death penalty by Pete, McNeil told him that “the state couldn't seek the death penalty if it wanted to” due to several circumstances, including Birmingham's lack of prior convictions.
There is always the prospect of a defendant being found not guilty if a case goes to trial, McNeil added.
“I'm sure you're aware of O.J. Simpson,” McNeil told the family. “Is there anyone in the galaxy that doesn't think he murdered those two people? I'm not passing judgment on him, but he walked out the door a free man. It happens.”
The plea agreement is the only way to be 100 percent sure that Birmingham goes to jail for the crime, the judge said. “All it takes is one juror” to force a hung jury in a case, he added.
But Shonto Pete told McNeil the evidence against Birmingham was overwhelming, and another of Craft's brothers, Montana Air National Guardsman Natani Pete, said afterward the judge's words didn't make him feel better about the plea agreement.
“It's like losing an arm,” Natani Pete said. “It's going to hurt for a while.”
Lake County Attorney Mitch Young told the judge he was recommending the plea agreement and noted the family's objections to it.
When Cote asked McNeil for more time so she could assemble the help of victims' rights groups, McNeil explained that only the prosecution or defense can request a continuance.
As Birmingham was led, handcuffed and in an orange jumpsuit, from the courtroom after stipulating that he had murdered the 18-year-old Craft, officers stepped between the killer and Shonto Pete.
The Lake County Courthouse has no separate entrance or exit for incarcerated defendants, who enter and leave through the same doors as the public and are moved through a public hallway outside the courtroom as well.
Pete was two feet from his sister's killer when he shouted out the words that hung in the courtroom air.
“You rotten son of a bitch!” he yelled.
Lake County deputies and Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes police originally believed they were responding to a possible kidnapping when Craft's sister, Shayla Cote, dialed 9-1-1 in the early morning hours of May 29 and told dispatchers Craft had been taken from their mother's home in Arlee.
Shayla had been asleep upstairs with her boyfriend, Chance Crowder, who got up to use the bathroom between 2:30 and 3 a.m.
Diana Cote was in the process of moving and was not at home at the time.
When he looked downstairs, Crowder couldn't believe what he saw - Birmingham, also known as Kelly Stanfield, dragging Craft's naked body toward the front door, according to court documents.
“I kept hitting her and hitting her,” Birmingham allegedly told Crowder, according to an affidavit filed by the prosecution.
Birmingham warned Crowder not to tell anyone what he saw, charging documents stated, and - after removing the body from the home - Birmingham returned and told Crowder to go upstairs and keep Shayla Cote from waking up while he cleaned up the bedroom using a bottle of bleach.
“Crowder went upstairs and laid down next to Cote,” the affidavit said. “He heard banging noises coming from downstairs and later heard (Birmingham's) pickup leave.”
Crowder then woke Cote and told her that her sister had been taken.
Cote initially told Crowder he had to be dreaming, but when she couldn't calm him went downstairs to look for Craft.
When Cote couldn't find her, she called police.
After being arrested about four hours later, Birmingham confessed to murdering Craft, according to Lake County Undersheriff Jay Doyle. Birmingham allegedly told investigators Craft had made a remark about his father, Wayne Stanfield, not being a very good person, and that had set him off.
Wayne Stanfield had been killed in a motorcycle wreck two days before Birmingham murdered Craft. A year earlier, Stanfield had been arrested in Ravalli County and charged with attacking his wife and two sons.
Law enforcement located Birmingham at his residence just over the Missoula County line at about 6:45 a.m. on the day of the murder, where they observed a pink bedroom slipper and bottle of bleach in the bed of the green 1982 Volkswagen pickup Crowder had seen outside the house where the murder took place.
An hour later, two CSKT policemen found Craft's body, wrapped in a blanket and with a matching pink slipper on one of her feet, in an area where Birmingham grew up known as Arlee Pines.
“Homicidal violence,” was listed as the cause of death on Craft's death certificate, including “probable ligature strangulation,” which means Craft was strangled with a foreign object, such as a cord or rope.
Birmingham allegedly tried twice to escape on the day of his arrest, the second time by kicking out the rear window of a sheriff's deputy's car with his feet and leaping, handcuffed, onto U.S. Highway 93 from the moving vehicle. That led to Birmingham being hospitalized for several days.
The first alleged escape attempt came when he ran while being questioned by detectives Dan Yonkin and Mike Sargeant at the Arlee Fire Hall.
The two counts of felony escape were dropped as part of the plea agreement.
Birmingham also pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of tampering with evidence, for moving Craft's body from the crime scene, and one count of tampering with a witness, for warning Crowder not to tell anyone what he had seen.
The plea agreement calls for 10-year prison sentences for both those crimes, to run concurrently with the 100-year sentence for deliberate homicide.
Craft, from Arlee, was living with brother Shonto Pete in Spokane and attending Havermale High School there, where she was due to graduate 10 days after the murder. Craft had returned to Arlee to visit her boyfriend, Tyler Vale, a Marine home on leave from Iraq, according to her family.
Vale and Birmingham had been friends, one of the few established connections between the victim and her killer.
Craft's family accepted an honorary diploma for Tasheena at Havermale's graduation ceremonies on June 8.
Outside the courthouse Wednesday, friends and family held up handmade signs, many with Tasheena Craft's picture on them, that said things such as “Thou shalt not kill,” “Justice for Sheena” and “Murderers should not be given plea bargains.”
“Sheena only had 18 years,” Diana Cote said. “He deserves life without parole.”
Birmingham is represented by Missoula attorney Lance Jasper.
McNeil set sentencing for Jan. 23.
Reporter Vince Devlin can be reached at 1-800-366-7816 or at vdevlin@missoulian.com.
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