Once Markus Kaarma's appeal for a new trial was turned down by the Montana Supreme Court over a week ago, his attorney Nate Holloway has filed a petition for rehearing, this time to the Montana Attorney General's office.

"We had 14 days from the time that the decision was filed from the Montana Supreme Court to file what's called a petition for rehearing," Holloway said. "That allows us to file a petition to ask the court to look at two issues that may not have been addressed in the court's opinion."

Holloway said the first issue at question deals with blood spatter evidence at the scene inside the Kaarma garage where Diren Dede was shot to death by Markus Kaarma in April of 2014.

"The first issue deals with the testimony of the detective on blood spatter," he said. "The court found that it was inadmissible testimony, meaning it would have no reasonable possibility of leading to a conviction. The second issue was that the court found that we did not raise our forcible felony instruction, and that we waived that issue on appeal. Part of an occupied structure defense is that you can use deadly force if you reasonably believe that it's necessary to prevent a forcible felony, such as burglary."

Holloway said the arguments will be submitted first to the Montana Attorney General's office.

"The attorney general's office has 15 days to respond, and then the court will make a determination on whether or not they will revisit the issues, so we'll just go from there," he said.

Kaarma was sentenced to 70 years in the Montana State Prison in February 2015 for the shotgun slaying of 17 year-old German exchange student Diren Dede for trespassing in his garage in April 2014.

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