State v. Ament, 568 P.3d 535

Charles Ament was charged in Flathead County, Montana, with felony DUI (fourth or subsequent offense) after a single-vehicle crash; a blood test showed .187 BAC.
At arraignment Ament, represented by counsel, asked for extra time to enter a plea; the court gave him one day, after which he pleaded not guilty.
Before trial, Ament was allowed by the court to represent himself, with standby counsel present for the proceedings.
During trial, Trooper Raymond testified about Ament's impairment and subsequent belligerence during a post-arrest pat-down.
Ament did not testify or present evidence; during closing arguments, he tried to discuss facts not in evidence, prompting the court to instruct the jury to disregard his personal knowledge statements.
The jury convicted Ament; he appealed, raising four key legal issues.

Issue	Ament's Argument	State's Argument	Held
1. Time to Enter Plea	Court erred by granting only 1 day, not a reasonable time as required	Court met statutory floor; no specific need shown	No abuse of discretion; affirmed
2. Admission of Belligerence Evidence	Trooper's testimony about belligerence was irrelevant/prejudicial	Testimony concerned DUI investigation; not objected to properly	Not plain error; affirmed
3. Court's Comments on Defendant's Silence in Closing Argument	Judge's comments infringed right against self-incrimination	Comments properly limited improper argument; not prejudicial	Not plain error; affirmed
4. Jury Instruction on Presumption of Innocence	Instruction deviated from statute, undermining due process	Instruction followed pattern, instructed on law correctly	No error; affirmed

State v. Duncan, 343 Mont. 220 (Mont. 2008) (discretionary rulings including jury instructions reviewed for abuse)
State v. Haller, 371 Mont. 86 (Mont. 2013) (reasonableness of timing at arraignment is a fact-based, discretionary decision)
State v. Strizich, 406 Mont. 391 (Mont. 2021) (proper preservation of evidentiary objections required for review)
Griffin v. California, 380 U.S. 609 (U.S. 1965) (Fifth Amendment bars prosecutorial/judicial comment on defendant's silence)
State v. Lindberg, 347 Mont. 76 (Mont. 2008) (plain error review reserved for cases affecting fundamental fairness of proceedings)
State v. Williams, 380 Mont. 445 (Mont. 2015) (jury instruction error requires reversal only if it compromises due process)