Huber pleads guilty to charges of murder

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Dirk Huber

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Dirk Huber pleaded guilty Monday during a change of plea hearing to murdering the mother of his child last year in Belfield.

Huber’s trial was scheduled to begin Monday at the Stark County Courthouse, but it was canceled earlier this month and changed to a plea hearing.

When asked by Judge William Herauf to explain his change of plea, Huber, 42, who was accused of suffocating Nicole Lynn Radebaugh in August 2011, sat in silence, then began to cry and repeatedly uttered, “I’m sorry,” before he addressed the court.

“I stopped over to her apartment, Your Honor. We were having an argument,” Huber said. “Things in the past that kept bugging me were brought up. I wanted clarification, an explanation. We argued a lot. She made faces at me. I don’t know what happened after that. I just snapped.”

Huber’s attorney, Jay Greenwood, backed up Huber’s recollection of what happened.

“Mr. Huber snapped before he realized what he was doing,” Greenwood said.

Murder carries a maximum penalty of life in prison without parole.

Stark County State’s Attorney Tom Henning recommended a 30-year sentence.

Herauf said he did not know much about Huber’s background and agreed with Greenwood’s request to sentence Huber sometime after Jan. 15 to make sure there is adequate time for a pre-sentencing investigation.

Huber admitted to someone in a phone conversation that he had killed Radebaugh, who is the mother of the couple’s child, according to the complaint.

The complaint also states that the child told law enforcement officials that she heard Huber and the victim arguing the day Radebaugh died, and that Huber told her he was sorry he hurt her mother and he would turn himself in.

Instead, Huber led numerous law enforcement agencies on a several days chase through the Badlands before he was apprehended 20 miles north of Medora and west of the Little Missouri River.

Huber has been held at the Southwest Multi County Correction Center in Dickinson on a $1 million bond.

Tags: news, local, dickinson, belfield, huber