State v. G. Laman

── State v. G. Laman ── Court: Montana Supreme Court Date: May 12, 2026 Category: Direct Appeal 05/12/2026 DA 25-0034 Case Number: DA 25-0034 IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF MONTANA 2026 MT 101 STATE OF MONTANA, Plaintiff and Appellee, v. GRANT GAGE LAMAN, Defendant and Appellant. APPEAL FROM: District Court of the First Judicial District, In and For the County of Lewis and Clark, Cause No. CDC-2023-81 Honorable Kathy Seeley, Presiding Judge COUNSEL OF RECORD: For Appellant: Samuel L. Martin, III, Delli Bovi, Martin, & Reed, LLC, Helena, Montana For Appellee: Austin Knudsen, Montana Attorney General, Thad Tudor, Assistant Attorney General, Helena, Montana Kevin Downs, Lewis and Clark County Attorney, Ann Penner, Deputy County Attorney, Helena, Montana Submitted on Briefs: January 21, 2026 Decided: May 12, 2026 Filed: __________________________________________ Clerk Justice Laurie McKinnon delivered the Opinion of the Court. ¶1 Grant Gage Laman (Laman) appeals from the October 20, 2023 Order entered in the First Judicial District Court, Lewis and Clark County, which retained the matter in the District Court rather than transferring the proceeding to Youth Court. We affirm. ¶2 We restate the issue on appeal as follows: Whether the District Court erred by maintaining the criminal proceeding in the District Court instead of transferring it to Youth Court. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND ¶3 This case involves allegations of multiple instances of sexual intercourse without consent (SIWOC) and sexual abuse of children involving four different victims, three of whom were too young to consent. The alleged offenses occurred between December 2020 and May 2022. ¶4 In June 2022, Officer Scott Finnicum responded to a report of evidence of sex-related crimes on a phone belonging to P.S. Officer Finnicum learned that the phone belonged to P.S. but had previously belonged to N.W. N.W.’s Instagram account, still accessible on P.S.’s phone, had received messages from several people, including Laman. The messages indicated that Laman, then age seventeen, was involved in a continuing sexual relationship with N.W., then age fourteen. Although N.W. may have initially misled Laman about her age, he nonetheless continued to engage in sexual acts with her after learning her actual age. P.S. also showed additional evidence on the phone suggesting that Laman had engaged in SIWOC with two victims, N.W. and L.L., age fourteen, in a group setting; may have engaged in SIWOC with another victim, E.K.; and that there were nude 2 images of the then fourteen-year-old victims on Instagram. This information prompted Officer Finnicum to coordinate contact with the parents of L.L., N.W., and E.K. and to arrange for forensic interviews with the victims. ¶5 E.K. recounted her brief relationship with Laman in an interview with Officer Finnicum and Detective Sean Schoenfelder. E.K. met Laman on Snapchat in October 2020 before meeting in person the following month. E.K. reported that the two had a sexual relationship until early January 2021. E.K. recounted that she was not comfortable having sex with Laman but that he “was persistent” and pressured her to engage in sexual intercourse with him on multiple occasions. She explained that Laman would take her clothing off while she was telling him to stop and on at least one occasio