A felony drug case against a Poplar man was dismissed by Tribal Court because the prosecution never proved the defendant was Indian.

Ralph Hamilton walked free from the Tribal Court after his defense counsel introduced a motion to dismiss the charges based on the fact that the Tribes did not prove Hamilton was indeed an adult Indian person subject to the jurisdiction of the Fort Peck Tribal Court.

Hamilton is an enrolled tribal member with the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes.

During the presentation of the Tribes case against Hamilton, it was never pointed out that he was Indian, Tribal Public Defender Terry Boyd said. This has been upheld by a previous appellate court ruling, he said, citing the case of Fort Peck Tribes v. Sierra Jackson and Raven Lane where the court upheld that the trial court judge must determine defendants in a criminal trial are Indian beyond a reasonable doubt to consider convicting them of criminal offenses.

Prosecutor Adrienne Weinberger pointed out that Hamilton has a history with the Tribal Court and he has a three page rap sheet with former charges.

Judge Headdress said this was something that needed to be done when the Tribes were presenting their case to the jury. Based on the previous ruling, the case against Hamilton was dismissed.

The Tribes have indicated they would be refiling the case.

Hamilton was present at the home of Annie Cantrell the night she was busted for methamphetamine dealing. In the police body cam video, Hamilton could be seen in the bedroom where Cantrell was found and he was taken into custody.

Trial

During the trial, the defense brought up issues with the evidence seized during the search.

In the original criminal complaints, police list the amounts of several bags of meth recovered.

Officer Charles Bieber was called to the stand.

Bieber said the probable cause for the search warrant came from an open 911 call from the house earlier that day. On the line, a male could be heard yelling that he was going to steal drugs from Annie Cantrell, who called 911.

Police went to her home and arrested one male, and using the open 911 call information they were able to secure a warrant and returned later to execute a search.

When police arrived, they encounted Poplar woman Megan Black, who was outside of the home. She was briefly held while police continued inside.

In addition to two teenage children, police also held Clairence Longtree in the hallway outside of Cantrell’s bedroom door. Hamilton was found inside of Cantrell’s room, and with his back turned the police also took him into custody. Cantrell was in the room and she was taken as well, and law enforcement began to search the bedroom.

Bags of methamphetamine as well as large amounts of cash and a firearm were recovered.

Under cross examination, Boyd asked about the call. Bieber said he spoke with BIA Drug Enforcement Officer on possible action regarding Cantrell. It was disclosed that a confidential source had purchased meth two times from Cantrells. That, combined with the call was enough to get a search warrant.

When the police encountered Black she said she was there to give Hamilton a ride.

In custody, Longtree admitted he was there to exchange food for meth with a foodstamp card. This was all played on Officer Bieber’s bodycam footage.

Longtree and Black were not charged with anything.

Boyd pointed out there could be an issue with the evidence based on the way it was handled, including nothing to prevent finger print contamination and not being weighed at the scene. Evidence was put into a bag and transported to the temporary holding evidence locker at the Department of Law and Justice.

The Tribes were going to enter a stack of pictures as one of their exhibits but Boyd objected and requested that all pictures be entered individually as opposed to a packet. Several photos were objected, and certain photos including the one with the gun were excluded because they were prejudicial to Hamilton and he was not charged with the gun.

Packages of meth were weighed, and Boyd pointed out that one of the bags confiscated weighed 470 grams. However, this same bag was listed in a Drug Enforcement Agency test as weighing 450 grams of meth, leaving 20 grams unaccounted for.

The evidence was taken from the scene to the temporary evidence holding area. Supervisory Criminal Investigator Kenny Trottier testified he was given the evidence police gathered from the scene and put it into the temporary holding locker before being turned over to BIA Agent Raoul Figueroa. It was sent onto the lab at this point to be tested.

As for the difference in weight, Trottier said that the bags used in evidence handling can account for a variation of weight by a few grams.

Before the jury could hear about the quality of the meth from DEA chemists, one of their testimony was not needed and the other chemist was out of the country at the time of the trial.

That was when the Tribes rested their case against Hamilton,

When it was time for the defense case, Boyd asked the jury to be excused and when they were out of the room he made a rule 29 motion. The Tribes never proved he was an adult Indian person subject to the jurisdiction of the court.

Judge Headdress called a brief recess while he considered this and the appellate court rulings on the matter. When court resumed he ruled in favor of the defense and dismissed the case. Jurors were released.

Outside, Hamilton hugged his auntie when he walked out of Tribal Court.