MISSOULA — A U.S. appellate court has overturned Michael DeFrance’s conviction on a federal gun charge.
DeFrance is the ex-boyfriend of Jermain Charlo, an Indigenous woman missing since 2018. DeFrance has never been named a suspect in her disappearance.
In 2013, however, he pled guilty to assaulting Charlo. Under Montana law, he was convicted of misdemeanor partner or family member assault.
After law enforcement found him with guns in 2018, DeFrance ended up in federal court, accused of violating a national law banning convicted domestic abusers from having firearms. Until Monday, he was convicted.
That’s when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that the Montana statute DeFrance was prosecuted under does not meet the requirements for the federal charge.
It all has to do with a mismatch between the state and federal definitions of bodily injury.
According to the decision, because Montana’s law also encompasses emotional violence, and doesn’t just consider physical injury, a conviction under the statute cannot qualify as “misdemeanor crime of domestic violence,” as laid out by Congress.
It hinges on the word “necessarily.” While very unlikely, it is technically possible to be found guilty of violating this Montana law for verbal or emotional abuse. And that, the Court found, would not necessarily meet the criteria of physical force under the federal definition.
In practice, state prosecutors say cases involving no physical violence fall under a separate charge.
Lawyers on both sides did not present a single example of a case without physical violence filed under the statute DeFrance was charged with.
DeFrance himself admitted to physically assaulting Charlo, yet, the judges said Supreme Court precedent blocked them from considering the facts of the case. Instead, they focused just on the definition.
In concurring opinions, members of the panel worried over the impacts of this, calling on Congress to take action. Judge Christen wrote, “Ironically, the results in this case would be different if Montana’s laws were less protective of domestic violence victims.”
Now, those convicted under Montana’s misdemeanor partner or family member assault statute cannot be prevented from gun possession under this federal law, like in other states.
With his federal conviction reversed, the appellate panel vacated his sentence and remanded the case back to the lower courts for resentencing and other proceedings.
MTN News reached out to the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Montana, who declined to comment.
WATCH related coverage: Missing woman Jermain Charlo's family pleased with national spotlight on the case
