Bail bond company involved in Missoula shooting death ignored state’s warning

The bail bond company whose bondsmen were arrested in conjunction with a fatal shooting in Missoula earlier this month was already under investigation and has since had its license to practice revoked, according to documents and personnel with the office of the Montana State Auditor.

On March 4, police responded to a shooting on Reserve Street to find a man dead surrounded by bail bondsmen from Billings. According to charging documents, the bondsmen were from Mr. Bail in Billings and were in Missoula to bring in one of their clients. Prosecutors say one of the bondsmen, Brandon Wakefield, shot the victim, who was pronounced dead on scene. Wakefield has been charged with deliberate homicide in Missoula County District Court. Another one of the bondsmen, Austin Mistretta, was charged with attempted assault with a weapon.

In a phone call with the Missoulian on Thursday, Ted Bidon, Insurance Consumer Services Bureau Chief with the Montana Commissioner of Securities and Insurance (CSI), said his office was tipped off by the Billings Police Department in October 2025 that an administrative assistant at Mr. Bail, Bobbie Helmey, was issuing bail bonds despite not being licensed. After an investigation, the office met with Anna Yarbro, manager of Mr. Bail's Billings location. According to CSI documents, Yarbro admitted that Helmey had negotiated bond amounts, but said she approved the payment plans.

Bidon said he'd warned Mr. Bail at the time that people couldn't operate as bondsmen without a license.

"We informed Mr. Bail that that was not allowed, and they assured us that that was not happening," Bidon said.

According to Bidon, at this point, the CSI started investigating the incident. The investigation, once completed, would be referred to the CSI legal team to make the decision whether or not to initiate disciplinary action against Mr. Bail.

But after that meeting, Bidon said, they were told by one of Mr. Bail's clients that some of their employees had operated without a license in Big Timber. Investigators found that four people were dispatched on Dec. 30, 2025, to enforce a bond. Only one had a bondsmen license. The other three were Wakefield, Mistretta and Jorell Nagel, none of whom had a license at the time.

CSI decided to wrap up their investigation into the Big Timber incident before referring it to their legal team, Bidon said, so that they could consolidate both actions. When the March 4 shooting happened, Bidon said, they'd just sent the results of the investigation to their legal team.

According to the head of the CSI legal team, Jack Conner, even if the shooting hadn't happened, the team probably would have filed to revoke Mr. Bail's license.

At the time of the March 4 Missoula shooting, the four bondsmen at the scene were Mistretta, Wakefield, Nagell and Ryan Smith. Nagell and Smith were not licensed, having failed the test to do so multiple times, according to documents. Mistretta and Wakefield had received temporary licenses on Feb. 11, 2026, meaning they needed to be supervised by someone who'd had a license for at least five years until they finished their training.

Because most of the investigative work had already been done to file for that license to be revoked, Bidon said, the office was able to revoke the license mere days after the shooting.

"It's an unfortunate situation," Bidon said. "It should not have happened this way."

In Montana, a growing trend of what at-the-time state auditor Troy Downing called "bad encounters" prompted the passage of House Bill 62 in 2023, which mandates that all bail bondsmen complete 40 hours of training before getting their license and contact law enforcement before attempting to apprehend a defendant.

In 2017, a group of bondsmen broke into a man's house in Lolo, holding him, his wife and 4-year-old daughter at gunpoint, then taking the man in for missing a court date for a traffic violation. This led to an ACLU lawsuit that was settled in 2019.

In 2021, a pair of Butte bondsmen killed a man in his home who was harboring someone they were trying to apprehend. They were sentenced to 40 years in prison in 2024.

In 2022, a bondsman in Great Falls was charged with causing a car crash while trying to apprehend someone.

Bidon said that the statute is vague on what "supervision" means and doesn't detail whether the supervisor needs to be on the scene or can just be their manager.

The manager at Mr. Bail in Billings, Amy Yarbro, was licensed on March 11, 2025, Bidon said, meaning she wasn't qualified to oversee bondsmen on temporary licenses.

On March 6, 2026, the CSI office suspended Wakefield and Mistretta's temporary licenses. On March 12, 2026, the CSI office suspended Mr. Bail's license to operate in Montana.

Bidon said the CSI office has the authority to issue penalties of up to $25,000 per violation to businesses and $5,000 per violation to individuals, though couldn't comment on what might happen in this case.

Mr. Bail is a national company that has 30 locations across multiple states. It's headquartered in Virginia, and according to business records, the registered agent is Brian Cole. Brian Cole Jr. was charged in January with planting two explosive devices on Jan. 5, 2021, outside the D.C. headquarters of both the Republican National Committee and Democratic National Committee, according to the D.C. U.S. Attorney's Office.

Bidon said his office most often finds out about bondsman licensing violations through local law enforcement. In the case of Mr. Bail, the office first started investigating after a tip from Billings law enforcement.

"This doesn't happen very often," Bidon said. "We're seeing it more probably in the last six months."

The investigation into Mr. Bail was first reported by the Montana Free Press.

Bidon said Nagell and Smith are also being investigated, thought couldn't comment on what specific consequences, if any, they may face. Nagell and Smith have not been charged with any crime in Missoula. But under statute, they could be charged by CSI for operating as an insurance agent without a license.

Bidon said it's particularly important for bondsmen to be properly trained and licensed because criminal defendants occupy a marginalized status in the community.

"They're separated out, and the interaction they have with the community is going to be a bail bondsman. And that's why it needs to be someone trustworthy," Bidon said. "But every once in a while, you get someone who instead of providing a service, wants to get into a marginalized community and take advantage of them. And there's really no room for that."

Both Wakefield and Mistretta have been released on bond pending further legal proceedings.