Montana court upholds conviction in German student’s death

HELENA – The Montana Supreme Court has upheld the deliberate homicide conviction of a Missoula man for shooting a German exchange student in his garage.

Markus Kaarma is serving a 70-year prison sentence for the April 2014 death of 17-year-old Diren Dede.

Kaarma argued jurors were not properly instructed about justifiable use of force. They also argued that pre-trial news coverage biased the jury and the trial should have been held outside of Missoula.

The Supreme Court rejected those arguments and others Wednesday in upholding the conviction.