Gun owned by Danielle Wood found in Clark Fork River

For a case which dragged on for nearly three years, there’s maybe little surprise the Danielle Wood saga continues.

According to court documents, a man found a handgun in the Clark Fork River at the Flat Iron fishing access site, two miles west of Thompson Falls.

The serial number on the gun matched one bought by Wood a few months before the shooting death of Matthew LaFriniere. LaFriniere and Wood had a child together and prosecutors alleged during her murder trial earlier this year that ongoing custody issues led her to kill him.

Now, Daniel Guzynski, an Assistant Attorney General for the state who led the prosecution of Wood, wants to have ballistic tests done to see if a bullet removed from LaFriniere’s body was fired from the gun found in the river.

Wood is currently serving a 100-year sentence in the Montana State Women’s Prison after she was convicted of murdering LaFriniere on Jan. 29.

At the time of Wood’s conviction, Guzynski said. “This case was challenging in that the firearm used was never found.”

But now it appears there will be at least an opportunity to see if the bullet recovered from LaFriniere was fired from the gun bought by Wood.

Guzynski filed the motion to do tests on the bullet and gun July 20.

District Court Judge Deborah “Kim” Christopher first must make a ruling on the motion. According to Guzynski, defense counsel for Wood had no objection to the testing.

LaFriniere was found dead at his home on Airport Road on May 3, 2018, by a coworker after he didn’t come to work that day.

Wood was arrested on March 20, 2019, and charged with deliberate homicide.

Wood’s neighbor, Henry Cheeseman, was interviewed by a detective and said he had been in a relationship with Wood three years earlier.

“Cheeseman stated that during that time Wood asked Cheeseman if he would be willing to ‘take out’ Matthew,” court documents said. “Cheeseman stated that he took this to mean that Wood was propositioning him to kill Matthew.”

One of LaFriniere’s neighbors, Montana Highway Patrolman Cale Lang, told a detective he had observed eight to 10 physical confrontations between Wood and LaFriniere, and that “half of the confrontations became physical and that Wood was ‘the aggressor,’” according to court documents.

Two other neighbors told law officers they heard gunshots during the evening hours of May 2.

State investigators probing the shooting said cellphone records linked Wood to the crime and the jury agreed.

Wood did file a motion for a new trial shortly after her conviction. She claimed her attorneys were ineffective and the delay of trials by the state Office of the Public Defender.

But Judge Christopher denied the motion, writing in her order “The defendant has filed an appeal with the Montana Supreme Court which will be able to review these issues.”

Wood’s trial was delayed more than once as attorneys defending her have left the case for various reasons.

Attorneys Eldena Bear Don’t Walk and Ashley Morigeau initially represented Wood before Kirk Krutilla and William Managhan of the state public defender’s office took over.

Wood’s trial was set to begin in July 2020, but Krutilla gave notice Feb. 19, 2020, that “it will be very unlikely or almost impossible he would be working for the Office of the Public Defender” in July.

Managhan, a Kalispell-based attorney, represented Wood.

Judge Christopher also wrote “The defendant was clear about wanting to go to trial and only agreed to one continuance. The state never asked for one continuance.

“The record demonstrates the actions of the Office of Public Defender with their numerous and odd timelines of their appointments, removal of attorneys, “place holder status,” substitutions,” continuances and ultimately the defendant’s lead counsel’s refusal to proceed to jury trial three days before set in July 2020 after upwards of 200 jurors had been confirmed by the District Clerk of Court.

“Mr. Rapkoch, who was represented to the Court as a “capital qualified defense counsel,” was appointed. The Court asked when he could be ready. He indicated January 2021 and swore to the Court there would be no more continuances. The Court set the jury trial in January and the case was tried.”