State v. Branham

¶1 Charles Ivan Branham appeals from the October 22, 2010 judgment and conviction of the Fourth Judicial District Court, Missoula County, entered after a jury trial, adjudging him guilty of mitigated deliberate homicide, §45-5-103, MCA, and sentencing him to forty years at the Montana State Prison without the possibility of parole.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

¶2 During the night of December 10-11, 2009, Branham fatally stabbed Michael Kinross-Wright during a fight. The fight arose from the fact that Brittany Wells, the mother of one of Branham’s children, had a romantic and drug-using relationship with…