By Dave Thompson
Bismarck, ND – A man who confessed on the Internet to killing his daughter now wants a trial in his case.
Larry Froistad confessed on an Internet bulletin board that he killed his five year old daughter Amanda by setting a house fire in Bowman in 1995. He pleaded guilty to murder and a separate federal charge of possessing child pornography.But his lawyer, Monte Rogneby, argued that Froistad told his lawyers and the trial judge that he didn't want to plead guilty to murder. Rogneby says Froistad's requests were ignored. Rogneby also claims Froistad's constitutional rights were violated because he did not attend a key meeting in the case.He says at the telephone meeting -- the judge and lawyers in the case discussed changing Froistad's plea agreement...and looked at the pre-sentence investigation.
"He told the probation officer, 'I'm innocent. I want to change my plea to not guilty.' Those documents were before the court, before this telephone conference that was done off the record without him there. It seems to me that he has a right to be there, so that the trial judge can say, 'Mr. Froistad, I received these things from you. I don't care what you want to do. Do you want to plead guilty or do you want a trial? Tell me.'"
But Bowman County state's attorney Steve Wild said Froistad had plenty of chances in open court to say he wanted a trial -- and he never did. Wild says Froistad had three lawyers -- and he's trying to argue they all conspired against him -- and wouldn't listen to him.