BISMARCK, N.D. — A North Dakota man who’s been questioned in an alleged murder-for-hire scheme in Spokane, Washington, succeeded Wednesday in a rare move that should allow evidence to be used against him in a separate illegal weapons case.
James Henrikson was arrested in January and charged with being a felon in possession of firearms after investigators found guns in a safe in his Watford City home.
Spokane authorities had earlier interviewed Henrikson about his business dealings in the North Dakota oil patch with Doug Carlile, who was shot and killed in December by an intruder in his Spokane home.
Henrickson’s first court-appointed lawyer in the weapons case had argued that the warrant to search Henrikson’s home didn’t authorize police to contact the safe manufacturer for the lock combination, and the evidence should be excluded.
Henrikson wants to go to trial quickly and said he didn’t authorize his lawyer to object to the search. U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland in April allowed Henrikson to change lawyers and held a hearing last month on whether to rescind the motion to throw out evidence.
Hovland on Wednesday approved Henrikson’s request.
Defense attorney Thomas Tuntland, who was ordered by Hovland to take over Henrikson’s case, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The U.S. attorney’s office in North Dakota had no comment.
Before Henrikson was arrested on the weapons charges, Spokane police questioned him about his business dealings with Carlile.
Court documents show that Henrikson was an investor in a company called Kingdom Dynamics that had mineral rights to 640 acres of land. Carlile owned 51 percent of Kingdom Dynamics.
Henrikson told Spokane police that Carlile owed him nearly $1.9 million and he was angry with Carlile, but denied any involvement in the killing.
Timothy Suckow, 50, is charged with first-degree murder and Robby Wahrer, 33, is charged with second-degree murder in the Carlile case. Investigators allege that Suckow shot and killed Carlile in the kitchen of his home and Wahrer drove the getaway van.
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