HELENA – The attorneys for the man accused in the killing of a Broadwater County Sheriff’s deputy are asking the Montana Supreme Court to overturn a judge’s order saying their client must be medicated so he can be tried for murder.
Thursday marked the two year anniversary of when Lloyd Barrus and his son Marshall ambushed Deputy Mason Moore near Three Forks, leading law enforcement in a cross-state chase ending with Marshall Barrus’ death during a shootout east of Missoula.
The elder Barrus faces multiple counts, including deliberate homicide. But he suffers from a number of mental issues, and what his attorneys describe as a “delusional disorder of the persecutory type” and a “personality disorder” that makes him “unfit to stand trial.”
But the attorneys claim Lewis and Clark County District Court Judge Kathy Seeley didn’t prove four independent factors required by the law when ordering Barrus to be medicated so he can be fit to stand trial.
In briefs filed with the Supreme Court this week, the attorneys dispute the judge’s finding that Barrus’ criminal record shows he’s a “risk” to “repeat his crime if left untreated.”
As we had reported two years ago, Barrus had been involved in a standoff and shootout with police in California 17-years before attacking Deputy Moore.
