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Sherry Arnold Killing: Suspects Plead Not Guilty In Montana Teacher Murder

05/15/12 05:15 PM ET AP

Sherry Arnold Killing
Sherry Arnold

BILLINGS, Mont. -- The suspects in the disappearance and killing of a Montana teacher have pleaded not guilty to murder and attempted kidnapping.

Forty-eight-year-old Lester Van Waters Jr. and 23-year-old Michael Spell were arraigned Tuesday on new charges filed since the March discovery of Sherry Arnold's body in a shallow grave in North Dakota.

The two Colorado men face the death penalty if convicted on charges of deliberate homicide.

State district Judge Richard Simonton in Sidney vacated trials for the two men originally set for July. They were not immediately rescheduled.

Arnold disappeared Jan. 7 while on a morning jog in Sidney, Mont., a once-quiet boom town in the Bakken oil field.

Court documents indicate that Spell has blamed Waters for choking Arnold to death; Waters allegedly said Spell did it.

Earlier on HuffPost:

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BILLINGS, Mont. -- The suspects in the disappearance and killing of a Montana teacher have pleaded not guilty to murder and attempted kidnapping. Forty-eight-year-old Lester Van Waters Jr. and 23-yea...
BILLINGS, Mont. -- The suspects in the disappearance and killing of a Montana teacher have pleaded not guilty to murder and attempted kidnapping. Forty-eight-year-old Lester Van Waters Jr. and 23-yea...
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
NatTurner1
Clinton 2016
09:20 AM on 05/19/2012
Animals!
01:15 AM on 05/19/2012
Why don't they just let the family decide the punishment. That seems fair.....
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
tall coolone
Professional know-it-all
04:09 PM on 05/18/2012
Intestinal crank...
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jenna2929
Keep On Keepin' On
10:14 AM on 05/17/2012
The Bakken boom is creating a lot of crime and bringing low lives to ND and parts of MT. Crime has gone way up and the small towns don't have enough law enforcement. Something you won't read in the news, men working in the oil fields in ND have no women to r a p e, so they are starting to r a p e each other, true story. Women are being escorted from the Walmart entrance to their car. I live in MT, and the crime is spreading in and around the Bakken oil field. I've always been safe when I'm by myself, but because of this, I've been hyper aware of my surroundings when I travel around MT (near ND border). Very sad, I wish this didn't happen.
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Big Horn Man
Your anger can be your worst enemy ...
11:18 PM on 05/16/2012
These two suspects make me sick. Choking her to death.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
greggied
Prying open my third eye
10:29 PM on 05/16/2012
Gotta love how these criminal scum point the finger at each other when the hammer falls. Always happens. And I don't care who I offend - terminate them. ASAP.
04:19 AM on 05/17/2012
you dont offend me, i agree completely
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
ariesheart23
07:06 PM on 05/16/2012
"The two Colorado men face the death penalty if convicted on charges of [deliberate homicide]." Has anyone ever noticed that men in America [U.S.] always are charged with superior murder names--"deliberate homicide." Wow, can anyone find a murder by a woman of a man that matches this one? I don't think this country has a superior murder title for women who murder men or children.
05:56 PM on 05/16/2012
Hey judge, what about a fair and speedy trial for the taxpayers? How dare you vacate their trial dates and not rescheduled them. You need to be fired.
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noughsaid1
Can't say what I REALLY want to say
05:56 PM on 05/16/2012
This poor lady just went out for a jog and never came home again. What has our world come to? It's a very scary place!!!
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
greggied
Prying open my third eye
10:25 PM on 05/16/2012
I've said on here before - there are many monsters among us. Women (and girls) can't walk, jog, wait on the bus, leave work, or even answer their door by themselves.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
NatTurner1
Clinton 2016
09:21 AM on 05/19/2012
Our world has always been like this. Nothing has changed.
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05:43 PM on 05/16/2012
this gets me. strangers just jumping someone, raping and killing. this is total monkey people behavior and it is really bad.
05:27 PM on 05/16/2012
Give em both the needle, A couple of air thieves. I read where the two low lifes bought a shovel from Wal-Mart to bury the lady & then took the used shovel back to Wal-Mart & ask for & got their money back.... Imagine that!!
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noughsaid1
Can't say what I REALLY want to say
05:51 PM on 05/16/2012
r u efin serious? That is as cold hearted as you can get! Those two need to get desposed of like carbage!
04:20 AM on 05/17/2012
just plain evil.
05:26 PM on 05/16/2012
MissBecca said to bring back the firing squad, and I like where she is going with this. But the firing squad is to quick and painless. We should bring back the public square where executions are held for all to see. Then impale them on a stake and let them rot in the sun until they take their last pathetic breath. People should be free to throw things at them like excrement.
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noughsaid1
Can't say what I REALLY want to say
05:52 PM on 05/16/2012
brutal but I like it. Same should be done for child molesters
06:24 PM on 05/16/2012
Shoot em in the hip and let em bleed out!
05:18 PM on 05/16/2012
It really should not matter just Who did the actual murder. They were Both there - the one who did it and other was there. Same thing. Both Guilty - BOTH need to get the same punishment - Death Penalty -= but quick - not 20- yrs from now.
05:14 PM on 05/16/2012
They always say they are Not Guilty.
06:43 PM on 05/16/2012
You are right. It was their meds. Mommy didn`t hug them. Bad guacomole. BLAH BLAH BLAH. FRY them, without butter, asap. Enough coddling of cold blooded murderers.
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evershiftingcenter
Never cut what you can untie.
04:46 PM on 05/16/2012
Nuke them !