Billings, Montana
AP
—
A Montana man suspected of killing four people at a bar then evading seize for a week was charged with further crimes together with tried arson throughout a Wednesday court docket look.
State District Judge Jeffrey Dahood ordered Michael Paul Brown to be held with out bail after the defendant’s attorneys stated psychological sickness could possibly be a difficulty within the case. No additional particulars got.
Brown’s household has stated the 45-year-old former soldier lengthy struggled with psychological sickness earlier than allegedly shooting a bartender and three patrons at The Owl Bar in Anaconda, Montana on August 1.
Brown, who lived subsequent door, additionally tried to wreck or destroy the bar by lighting objects inside it on fireplace, in accordance with newly launched court docket paperwork.
Defense lawyer Walter Hennessey pleaded not guilty on Brown’s behalf to fees that additionally embody 4 counts of homicide, theft and eluding police. Brown appeared earlier than the court docket by video from jail in Butte, Montana.
A conviction for homicide, recognized in Montana as deliberate murder, is punishable by loss of life within the state. However, executions in Montana have been on maintain since 2015 below a court docket ruling concerning a drug utilized in deadly injections.
A choice on whether or not to hunt the loss of life penalty in opposition to Brown is pending, Deer Lodge County Attorney Morgan Smith instructed the court docket Wednesday.
Anaconda, about 25 miles northwest of Butte, is residence to roughly 9,000 people. It’s surrounded by mountains, and following the shooting Brown allegedly stole a truck that he ditched a number of miles exterior of city at the bottom of a mountain earlier than escaping into the forest.
He hid for a week in that space west of Anaconda the place he was eventually apprehended, transferring areas whereas helicopters and drones circled overhead and officers and canine searched on the bottom, officers stated. Brown was captured on August 8 inside an unoccupied construction close to a bar within the small neighborhood of Stumptown, authorities stated.
Investigators even have been analyzing whether or not he had any contact with people or property house owners who may need helped him whereas he was on the run.
The proprietor of The Owl Bar has stated Brown patronized it over the previous a number of a long time and knew the victims.