A judge has scheduled a November hearing to decide whether a
Colorado man charged with killing an eastern Montana teacher
should be declared ineligible for the death penalty.  Richland
County Judge Richard Simonton on Friday set a Nov. 4 hearing on
the matter in Sidney.  Defense attorneys for 24-year-old Michael
Keith Spell say he suffers from mental disabilities that
preclude a death sentence under a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court
ruling.  Prosecutors say the Parachute, Colo. man killed high
school teacher Sherry Arnold of Sidney in January 2012. Her body
was found near Williston, ND.  Spell's co-defendant, Lester Van
Waters Jr., pleaded guilty last month under a deal that calls
for him to receive a 100-year prison sentence with 20 years
suspended. Waters also agreed to help in the case against Spell.