State v. Ament

Summary

The Montana Supreme Court affirmed Ament’s felony DUI conviction. It held that the district court acted within its discretion in allowing one additional day to enter a plea and that Ament failed to preserve the remaining claims, which did not satisfy the demanding plain-error standard. The court concluded that the challenged evidence was not shown to affect a fundamental right, the closing-argument comments did not improperly suggest guilt from silence, and the presumption-of-innocence instruction fully and fairly stated the law.