North Dakota Supreme Court affirms West Fargo man’s murder conviction

BISMARCK — The North Dakota Supreme Court has upheld a West Fargo man’s murder conviction.

In a ruling issued Thursday, Oct. 9, the Supreme Court said Spencer Moen’s constitutional right to confront witnesses was not violated by a district court judge’s decision to allow two of Moen’s children to testify at his trial for the August 2023 murder of his wife, Sonja Moen.

In October 2024, a Cass County District Court

jury found Spencer Moen guilty

of murder for beating his wife and leaving her in a bathtub to die.

During his murder trial, two of his children, who were 5 years old and at home when their mother died, were called by the prosecution to testify.

Their testimony was provided via video from outside the courtroom after two psychologists testified that the children would likely be retraumatized if they testified in front of their father.

Following his conviction,

Spencer Moen was sentenced on Dec. 30

to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

He

appealed his conviction to the Supreme Court,

claiming his constitutional rights were violated by not having his children testify in person during his murder trial.

In oral arguments before the state Supreme Court in September, Moen’s appellate attorney, Sam Gereszek, said the district court judge should not have relied on the psychologists’ testimonies to determine if the children would be traumatized by testifying in front of their father. Instead, Gereszek said, the judge should have questioned the children directly.

In the unanimous ruling issued Thursday, the Supreme Court said that while the right to confront witnesses is of a constitutional magnitude, it is not absolute, and in appropriate cases it may give way to other legitimate interests.

The ruling also stated North Dakota Century Code permits a trial judge to allow remote electronic testimony by children if testifying in front of a defendant would traumatize a child and affect the child’s ability to communicate.

“The (district) court specifically found remote testimony was necessary because Moen’s presence in court would re-traumatize the children and impact their ability to reasonably communicate — specifically that the children ’could likely shut down, cry uncontrollably,’ ’’ the Supreme Court said in its ruling.

The high court stated specifically that the district court’s decision to allow remote testimony complied with state law and that Moen had not established that his constitutional right to confront witnesses was violated.