1998 Montana murder case dragged on as opportunities missed

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — More than 17 years after he slashed the throat of a teenage clerk while robbing a Montana video rental store, Zachary O’Neill says guilt overcame him and he tried telling authorities he was the culprit.
But it was another three years after he first confessed in a psychiatric hospital, and later to sheriff’s investigators, before the admitted drug addict and petty criminal appeared in court for the 1998 murder of 18-year-old Miranda Fenner.
On Friday, O&rs