Attorney asks high court for re-hearing in murder

The Idaho Attorney General has asked the state Supreme Court to reconsider granting a new trial to a former Bonners Ferry man in prison for the 2001 shooting death of a 21-year-old Moscow woman.

The high court on July 7 granted David Meister the new trial after ruling that evidence against another suspect, including at least two reports of a confession, was not heard during Meister’s trial. Therefore, the 26-year-old was not given the chance to provide a complete defense.

Twenty days after the ruling, the state attorney general asked the Supreme Court — within the time allowed by law — for a re-hearing, according to a court spokeswoman in Boise. The state normally asks for re-hearings in murder cases, she said.

A deputy with the attorney general on Sept. 8 filed a 17-page brief with the state supreme court.

In the brief, the Rebekah Cude wrote that although Meister was not allowed to call the other suspect — Lane Thomas — to the stand during his original trial due to Lane’s Fifth Amendment rights, the court did not “exclude this evidence from being presented in any context” and did not deny Meister “the opportunity to lay foundation properly for any of the evidence.” 

The Fifth Amendment protects one from testifying in any criminal case where he can be a witness against himself.

The court has to yet to respond to the brief.

“Essentially it’s up to the Idaho Supreme Court again,” the spokeswoman said. “The Supreme Court will either grant or deny a re-hearing.”

If the Supreme Court denies it, Meister will get his new trial in Latah County, where Tonya Hart was murdered. If the high court accepts the re-hearing, the court will hear the case again.

Erik Lehtinen, who is Meister’s appellant public defender in Boise, feels fairly confident that a new hearing will be denied.

“Petitions for rehearings are not routinely granted,” Lehtinen said. “Based on the state’s brief, they haven’t presented a compelling reason why the Supreme Court should re-hear it.”

Cude could not be reached.

In an interview in July with Meister’s mother, Leah, said she was pleased with the supreme court’s ruling. The Bonners Ferry woman thanked God and said “for the first time, someone saw that my son got a raw deal.”

The other suspect in the killing was Thomas, who was familiar with and grew up near the road where the shooter exited the field that night.

Meister, however, told police he had been paid $1,100 by Hart’s boyfriend, Jesse Linderman, to kill Hart but then recanted and has since maintained his innocence.

Meister was living between Bonners Ferry and Moscow when he was accused of shooting Hart twice at point-blank range on Dec. 11, 2001, when she opened the back door of her mobile home north of Moscow.

Meister as of earlier this summer remained in a prison on Boise.