News

Mundt pleads guilty in Kirk's murder case

By Scott Wagar

09/17/2013

Timothy Mundt was back in court on Wednesday, Sept. 11, to change his plea of not guilty to guilty in the killing of Jessie Kirk in February of this year.

According to testimony in the court Wednesday afternoon by Bottineau County’s State Attorney Swain Benson III, the murder of Kirk was a mercy killing conducted by Mundt to assist Kirk who was suicidal.

Mundt’s new plea was to reduce the Class AA murder charge against him to a Class A murder charge, which takes the maximum sentence of life in prison without parole to 20 years in prison.

Benson stated that on the day of the murder, Mundt and Kirk, both of Westhope who lived in different dwellings, were together at Mundt’s house drinking. During that time, Kirk was upset and spoke of suicide. At some point, Mundt went and acquired a rifle (a 30-30 caliber rifle) in his house and handed it over to Kirk to kill himself; however, Kirk could not bring himself to take his own life.

“And so, Mr. Mundt indicated that at the conclusion of the evening that Mr. Mundt pulled the trigger,” Benson said. “I guess, in his own words, helping his friend in his rationale.”

The investigation into Kirk’s murder started a couple of days before Mundt was arrested when Kirk was considered a missing person by the Bottineau County Sheriff’s Department after Kirk didn’t return home and his family could not find him.

The missing person investigation soon turned into a murder investigation after local authorities found Kirk’s body in the back of Mundt’s truck.

“There was blood and body tissue in the house of Mr. Mundt, the pickup was located at Mr. Mundt’s house,” Benson said. “There was evidence the body had been drug from the house to the pickup.”

During the investigation, Mundt initially denied knowing how Kirk’s body was placed in his truck’s bed, but after investigators learned that Kirk had been shot in the head by a rifle and confronted Mundt with the evidence, Mundt admitted that he shot him at Kirk’s request.

With the guilty plea, the court went into the sentencing portion of the court hearing where Kirk’s father was given the opportunity to speak of his son and the disbelief he has carried since Mundt murdered his son.

“I thought Tim Mundt was my friend, but I guess I found out differently,” Gail Kirk said. “He could have come to me that night before he made the decision to pull the trigger and told me what was going on.”

Jessie Kirk’s father added that his son did have difficulties in life, especially with drinking, but that Jessie was the best man he had ever known in his life and that he had never said a harsh word about anybody in his life.

Gail Kirk added a heartfelt goodbye to his son.

“I loved him dearly,” Gail Kirk said to Northeast Judicial District Court Judge Michael Sturdervant. “Jessie I love you and someday I hope to see you again and that’s from the entire family.”

With a binding agreement set between the prosecution and defense, they requested to Sturdervant that Mundt be sentenced to the North Dakota Department of Correction for 20 years, with seven and a half years suspended, 12 and a half years to serve, with five years of supervise probation after he leaves prison.

Mundt’s defense attorney, William Hartl of Rugby, stated that under North Dakota law assisted suicide is a Class C felony with a maximum sentence of five years, but his client turned down moving forward with this type of charge because he did not want to put individuals through a trial.      

Sturdervant accepted the agreement.  The court also gave Mundt time served for his seven months in the Bottineau County jail.   

On Thursday morning, Sept. 12, Mundt was transported to the North Dakota State Penitentiary.