State v. C. Kirn, 530 P.3d 1

Background

Early-morning home invasion (Sept. 17, 2019): an intruder entered Melissa Laird’s home, climbed on her while she slept, threatened to kill her if she spoke; identified himself as "Clayton." Kirn was found nearby, fled when questioned, and his backpack (and a pocketknife) was recovered.
Charges and pretrial timeline: arrested Sept. 17, 2019; Information filed Oct. 30, 2019; omnibus Dec. 4, 2019; trial originally set for Apr. 20, 2020 but postponed due to COVID and scheduling changes; Kirn sought new counsel at the July 29, 2020 pretrial conference.
Additional delays: courthouse closure for COVID, substitution of counsel, new counsel requested a January 2021 trial date; Kirn filed a Motion to Dismiss for speedy-trial violation on Jan. 4, 2021.
Trial and verdict: tried Apr. 12–13, 2021 on aggravated burglary and obstructing a police officer (defense: mistaken identity); jury convicted on both counts.
Sentencing and appeal: June 2021 sentence (40 years for aggravated burglary, concurrent 6 months); on appeal Kirn argued speedy-trial violation, unpreserved jury-instruction errors (seeking plain-error review and asserting IAC for failure to object), and that the sentencing court relied on incorrect information (wrong felony count; misclassified as registered violent offender).

Issues

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether Kirn’s Sixth Amendment/Montana speedy-trial right was violated	Delay largely institutional (COVID) and partly caused by defendant (new counsel, late motions); State did not act in bad faith	573-day delay from arrest to trial was presumptively prejudicial and amounted to a constitutional violation	Denied relief — under Ariegwe/Barker balancing, much delay attributed to defendant or institutional causes; no showing of prejudice; speedy-trial right not violated
Whether this Court should apply plain-error review to unpreserved jury-instruction errors	Instructions, read as a whole, correctly informed the jury; no contemporaneous objection so plain error is unwarranted	Several instructions (elements, mental state, attempt) misstated law, amended the Information, and risked non-unanimous verdicts	Declined plain-error review — instructions taken as a whole were adequate and not shown to prejudice defendant
Whether trial counsel was ineffective for failing to object to jury instructions	Counsel’s omissions were strategic and consistent with a mistaken-identity defense; presumption of effective assistance	Failure to object was deficient and prejudicial to the defense	IAC claim rejected — no deficient performance shown and no prejudice established under Strickland
Whether sentencing relied on incorrect information requiring resentencing	State contended the claim may be waived but court may review; some juvenile history is admissible at sentencing	Judge misstated number of felonies (said 10 vs. 9) and labeled Kirn a registered violent offender though his registration had expired	Remanded for resentencing — court relied on incorrect factual information (felony count and violent-offender status), so resentencing required

Key Cases Cited

Barker v. Wingo, 407 U.S. 514 (1972) (establishes the four-factor speedy-trial balancing test)
State v. Ariegwe, 167 P.3d 815 (Mont. 2007) (adopts/frames Montana speedy-trial analysis applying Barker)
State v. Burnett, 502 P.3d 703 (Mont. 2022) (guidance on assigning weight to different types of delay)
State v. Hesse, 519 P.3d 462 (Mont. 2022) (treats COVID-related courthouse closures as institutional delay weighing minimally against the State)
State v. Heath, 432 P.3d 141 (Mont. 2018) (delay caused by defendant attributable to defendant; timing of speedy-trial motions)
Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (1984) (two-prong test for ineffective assistance of counsel)
State v. Sedler, 473 P.3d 406 (Mont. 2020) (violent-offender registration lapses automatically after ten years without intervening felonies)