(Missoula, MT) — Gun charges filed against the former boyfriend of a missing Montana woman are being overturned. A U.S. appellate court ruled Michael DeFrance’s 2018 gun conviction regarding domestic abusers does not meet requirements for the federal charge. DeFrance was never officially identified as a suspect in the 2018 disappearance of Jermain Charlo, but he did plead guilty to assaulting the Indigenous woman in 2013. With DeFrance’s federal weapons conviction reversed, the case now goes back to a lower court for resentencing.
