Murder of Kimberly Nees

Who is Murder of Kimberly Nees?

The Murder of Kimberly Ann Nees took place in Poplar, Montana in the early morning hours of June 16, 1979. Nees, a seventeen-year-old graduating senior, was bludgeoned to death while in her pickup near the Poplar River on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation. Barry Allan Beach, a seventeen-year-old at the time, confessed four years later. Even though DNA evidence from the crime scene was never linked to Beach, he was convicted and sentenced to 100 years in jail without parole in April 1984. Beach would recant his confession, claiming that he was coerced. Later he obtained the help of Centurion Ministries to obtain a new trial.

On December 7, 2011, Barry Beach was released pending a new trial in the killing. Beach’s release came just weeks after Fergus County District Judge E. Wayne Phillips ruled that there was enough new evidence in the 1979 murder of Kim Nees to justify a new trial for Beach. The decision for a new trial was based in part on eyewitness testimony that Nees "was killed in an out-of-control fight among girls." Phillips said his granting Beach a new trial was not to be construed as a presumption of innocence. Rather, it was a statement that enough new evidence in the case had surfaced that it was reasonable to believe a jury could rule in Beach’s favor. The prosecution's office appealed this decision and on May 15, 2013, the Montana Supreme Court overturned the lower court decision by a 4-3 ruling, citing Judge Phillips improperly weighed the evidence between his lower court ruling in 2011 and evidence presented at Beach's original trial in 1984. Beach was returned to prison shortly after.