Defense insists baby girl did not die in Arkansas

WYNNE, Ark. – The lawyer for a couple accused of killing their baby daughter and abandoning her body with a camper trailer said the couple doesn’t belong in an Arkansas court, where they could face the death penalty if convicted.

“Something bad happened somewhere, but not in Arkansas,” defense attorney Ray Waters said after Jason Hann and Krissy Werntz were charged with capital murder on June 14. “Ultimately, some court, someday, will say you’re in the wrong court.”

Waters signaled his defense strategy when the couple appeared for the first time in an Arkansas court to face charges in the death of Montana Hann. The girl’s body was found in a camper trailer abandoned by the couple last fall.

Hann and Werntz were extradited last week from Maine, where they were arrested in April.

Under Arkansas law, because the body was found here, an Arkansas court can have jurisdiction, a prosecutor said.

“It’s up to the defense to prove that the crime was committed elsewhere,” Prosecutor Fletcher Long said. “Arkansas law assumes that wherever we file the charge is the proper venue, unless the defense can prove otherwise.”

Prosecutors upgraded charges from first-degree murder to capital murder against Hann, 27, and Werntz, 22, at Friday’s hearing. Waters said he would challenge the state’s claim that Montana was killed in Arkansas and argue that the Arkansas court has no standing in the case. He did not say what evidence he had to support his claim.

According to a state police affidavit, the couple abandoned the baby’s body in the camper at a storage facility in Wynne after inquiring about sending payment for the space by mail. When the storage facility didn’t receive payment after several months, R.V. Melton of Benton bought the trailer at an auction.

Melton found Montana Hann’s body on Feb. 18 after transporting the camper to his work site at Benton. While cleaning the trailer he found a blue plastic storage container that was taped shut.

According to the affidavit, he opened the container, releasing a foul smell. Inside was a small body wrapped in plastic and duct tape stuffed between two blankets and a sleeping bag. The baby was wearing a disposable diaper, white socks and a green jump suit. Melton called police, who searched the camper.

“One of the photographs collected shows a white female believed to be Krissy Hann with a blanket in the background that appears to be one of the blankets the body was wrapped in,” police wrote in the affidavit. “Another photo shows the same female standing by a blue storage container that appears to be the same one the body was found in.”

A state crime lab report showed that the baby died of asphyxiation or suffocation. Authorities have not been able to determine the baby’s age when she died, although they say she was born in December 2000 in Arizona and died before October 2001.

“During this investigation witnesses have stated that they have never seen any children with (the couple),” the affidavit stated.