Montana man charged with shooting four people at a bar pleads not guilty

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A Montana man suspected of killing four people at a bar then evading capture for a week was charged on Wednesday with additional crimes, including lighting a fire in an attempt to destroy or damage the bar.

State District Judge Jeffrey Dahood ordered Michael Paul Brown to be held without bail after the defendant’s attorneys said mental illness could be an issue in the case.

The owner of The Owl Bar in Anaconda, Montana, David Gwerder, said Wednesday he was told by investigators that Brown lit a cardboard pizza box on fire hoping to use it as a “fuse” to ignite a bucket of flammable or explosive material. The bucket did not ignite, Gwerder said he was told, and the suspect allegedly left the bar then returned a minute later with a gun and killed the bartender and three customers.

Brown, who lived next door, was charged with attempted arson, according to newly-released court documents that said he set objects on fire and tried to damage or destroy the bar “by means of 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 pleaded not guilty on Brown’s behalf to charges that also include four counts of murder, theft and eluding police. Brown appeared by video from jail in Butte, Montana.

A decision on whether to seek the death penalty against Brown for the murder charges is pending, Deer Lodge County Attorney Morgan Smith told the court Wednesday. Executions in Montana have been on hold since 2015 in the state under a court ruling regarding 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.