HELENA, Mont. (NMB) – The Montana Supreme Court has affirmed a Missoula jury’s conviction of Wesley John Smith for the 2016 sexual abuse of a 9-year-old and upheld the constitutionality of his sentence requiring lifetime GPS monitoring.
The District Court sentence is a 100-year prison term with 80 years suspended on the child sex abuse charge, which was based on allegations that he forced the girl to strip and dance for him.
Although the Montana Supreme Court agreed that the District Court should not have allowed the jury to watch a video-recorded forensic interview of the child, they say the improper admission of the video did not impact Smith’s right to a fair trial.
