Convicted murderer will appeal sentence

Three months after being convicted of murder, 30-year-old Robert Wittal plans to appeal his conviction and 110-year prison sentence.

The notice came on April 5 when Chief Appellate Defender Chad Wright filed the appeal with Montana Supreme Court on Wittal’s behalf.

The reasoning behind the appeal has not yet been released.

Wittal was convicted of stabbing Wade Allen Rautio to death over an alleged drug debt after Rautio’s body was found stashed beneath a log near a lake in Creston.

His codefendants, Melisa Anne Crone, Christopher Michael Hansen and David Vincent Toman, were charged with accountability to homicide and have avoided going to trial.

Crone took a plea deal in March, pleading guilty to criminal distribution of dangerous drugs in exchange for the state dropping the homicide charge. She is set for sentencing on May 25.

Toman is scheduled for a change of plea hearing on April 27 and is expected to plead guilty to accountability to homicide in accordance with a plea agreement with the state.

Hansen has signed a plea agreement, but a sentencing hearing has yet to be scheduled.

Reporter Mary Cloud Taylor can be reached at 758-4459 or mtaylor@dailyinterlake.com.