Judge orders new trial for man in jail over 30 years for the murder of a Devils Lake man

DEVILS LAKE, N.D. (KVRR/KFGO) — A Devils Lake judge has ordered a new trial for a man who has spent more than 30 years in prison for a murder on Spirit Lake Reservation.

65-year-old Werner Kunkel has always maintained his innocence and has been fighting to clear his name for decades.

He was convicted in 1995 in the 1986 stabbing death of Gilbert Fassett.

Judge Daniel Narum learned during a hearing that prosecutors had suppressed statements by four witnesses who said they saw Fassett alive after the date prosecutors claimed he was killed.

The case was argued by Great North Innocence Project and Bruce Ringstrom Jr. and Dane DeKrey of the Ringstrom DeKrey Law Firm in Moorhead.