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    Brandon Lee Craft Sentenced to 110 Years in 2016 MT Murder of Adam Petzack





    Craft trial for 2016 murder of disabled vet Adam Petzack gets underway

    By Traci Rosenbaum
    Great Falls Tribune

    More than three years after the murder of 28-year-old Great Falls resident and disabled veteran Adam Petzack, jury selection begins Tuesday for the trial of Brandon Lee Craft, who is accused of deliberate homicide in the case.

    A total pool of 300 potential jurors was polled for the trial, which is expected to last at least through Monday. Preliminary selection will begin at Montana ExpoPark, but officials hope to have the pool narrowed enough after Tuesday to fit in the courthouse.

    As the process progresses, jurors will be questioned and eliminated based on a number of factors until a group of twelve jurors with two to three alternates has been selected.

    Cascade County District Judge Elizabeth Best is presiding over the trial.

    Petzack, a disabled veteran who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, was initially reported as a missing person after he was last seen by friends on or about Feb. 9, 2016.

    In August of that year, Petzack's body was found buried on property rented by Craft on 66th Avenue Southwest, and Craft was charged with deliberate homicide, tampering with evidence and exploitation of an older person, incapacitated person or person with a developmental disability.

    Craft told detectives he had found Petzack masturbating in his family's trailer in the middle of the night and "lost it" when he discovered his young daughter lying in the bed naked.

    Craft stated he grabbed a .22 rifle and followed Petzack outside, where he shot him in the head before burying him in the "barn" on his property on the southwest side of Great Falls.

    According to court documents, Craft admitted to pawning the weapon he used, selling Petzack's truck and abandoning his service dog somewhere on the way to Valier.

    The dog was never found.

    Court documents also report that Craft and his wife Katelyn set up a Square account linked to the account where Petzack received his VA benefit payments via direct deposit, receiving debits from Petzack's account totaling $1,400 over three months.

    Katelyn Craft was charged with felony exploitation in September 2016 but later accepted a plea deal to plead guilty to two counts of felony deceptive practices and to disclose information about the alleged killing of Petzack.

    While the Crafts were married at the time of the alleged killing, Cascade County Attorney Josh Racki said some information, such as certain conversations to which only the two were party, will be covered by spousal immunity, while the acts themselves will not.

    Originally set for November 2018, Craft's trial was postponed a month before its scheduled date after a new witness created a conflict of interest for one of Craft's attorneys.

    According to Racki, the new witness claimed he was Craft’s cellmate and said Craft confessed to him that he committed the crime.

    Attorney Vince van der Hagen, who also represented the new witness, was forced to withdraw as counsel for both men, and Larry Lafountain was appointed as his replacement.

    The trial was continued again on May 24 when an anonymous letter was received by Judge Best's office claiming that Katelyn Craft killed Petzack and admitted the crime to three people.

    All three people mentioned in the letter denied that Katelyn Craft made any admission to them, but LaFountain asked for more time to investigate the letter's origin, and the trial was reset to July 8.

    That date was also postponed, however, due to the pregnancy of major witness Katelyn Craft.

    Brandon Craft's trial will begin immediately after a jury is selected. If convicted, Craft could face life in prison or the death penalty on the homicide charge.

    https://greatfallstribune.com/story/...ay/1197233001/
    Last edited by Steven; 05-09-2022 at 11:48 AM.

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