BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A Montana man accused of killing four individuals at a bar and then evading arrest for a week was charged on Wednesday with additional offenses, including attempting to set the bar on fire.
State District Judge Jeffrey Dahood ordered that Michael Paul Brown be held without bail after the defendant’s attorneys indicated that mental illness might be relevant to the case.
The owner of The Owl Bar in Anaconda, Montana, David Gwerder, stated Wednesday that investigators informed him Brown set a cardboard pizza box on fire, intending to use it as a “fuse” to ignite a container of flammable or explosive material. The container did not ignite, Gwerder was told, and the suspect allegedly left the bar, returning shortly with a gun to kill the bartender and three patrons.
Brown, a resident of the neighboring area, was charged with attempted arson, according to newly-released court documents that allege he set objects on fire and attempted to damage or destroy the bar “using fire or explosives.”
Brown’s family has said the 45-year-old former soldier long struggled with mental illness before the Aug. 1 shooting.
Defense attorney Walter Hennessey entered a not guilty plea on Brown’s behalf to charges including four counts of murder, theft, and evading law enforcement. Brown appeared by video from the jail in Butte, Montana.
A decision on whether to seek the death penalty for Brown concerning the murder charges is still pending, Deer Lodge County Attorney Morgan Smith informed the court on Wednesday. Executions in Montana have been suspended since 2015 because of a court ruling concerning a drug used in lethal injections.
Bail for Brown previously had been set at $2 million. But Dahood on Wednesday sided with a prosecution request to hold Brown for now without the possibility of bail. The judge cited public safety and the mental health issues raised by Brown’s attorneys.
The judge set trial for Jan. 12.
Anaconda, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) northwest of Butte, is home to roughly 9,000 people. It is surrounded by mountains. Following the shooting, Brown allegedly stole a truck that he ditched several miles outside of town at the base of a mountain before escaping into the forest.
He hid for a week in that area west of Anaconda where he was eventually apprehended, moving locations while helicopters and drones circled overhead and officers and dogs searched on the ground, officials said. Brown was captured on Aug. 8 inside an unoccupied structure near a bar in the small community of Stumptown, authorities said.
Investigators also have been examining whether he had any contact with individuals or property owners who might have helped him while he was on the run.
Authorities have not commented on a possible motive, and much of the case against Brown has been sealed by the judge.
Brown had patronized the bar over several decades and knew the victims, Gwerder said.
