Four Corners man accused of cruelty to chickens, drug possession, and more

A 42-year-old man was in the county jail Wednesday on suspicion of animal cruelty and being in possession of magic mushrooms and unauthorized firearms, among other alleged offenses.

The man, Matthew Joseph Sorrells, was arrested June 5 following an investigation that began when someone had called authorities on June 3 to report that Sorrells had violated a court order by possessing firearms.

On June 5, a sheriff’s deputy searched a trailer off Milwaukee Road in Four Corners where Sorrells had allegedly obtained permission to hide the firearms. The deputy reported finding ammunition, two SKS rifles, two AK-47s, a .22 pistol, an AR-15, a bolt-action rifle, a sniper rifle, a double-barreled shotgun, a .40 caliber pistol, and multiple AR-style firearm components. The deputy, who allegedly had searched the trailer with the owner’s consent, seized the firearms and determined that Sorrells’ GPS monitor indicated that Sorrells had been in the area earlier that day.

Later the same day, June 5, the deputy happened to see Sorrells driving and pulled him over.

“Matthew was extremely hostile and refused to get out of the car,” reads a June 12 affidavit by the deputy. “After I ordered him to exit the vehicle multiple times, he ultimately exited the vehicle and he was placed in handcuffs. Matthew was extremely upset with being arrested and yelled multiple expletives and insults at me as a result of this.”

As Sorrells was being taken to jail, he made an “excited utterance” to the effect that he knew that he wasn’t supposed to be in possession of firearms, according to the affidavit.

“Excited utterance, under the Federal Rules of Evidence, is defined as a statement that concerns a startling event, made by the declarant when the declarant is still under stress from the startling event,” reads a fact sheet from Cornell University’s. “Excited utterance is an exception to the hearsay rule.” The legal theory is that such utterances are likely to be made by people who haven’t had time to consider making false statements and as such can be admissible in court.

On June 12, the deputy and four other peace officers executed a search warrant for Sorrells’ property off Arrowhead Trail in Four Corners. The affidavit alleges the officers found a revolver that belonged to someone else and that Sorrells had refused to give back. The deputies also allegedly found two bags of psilocybin mushrooms and a loaded syringe of suspected methamphetamine.

“Also while executing the search warrant, I observed a chicken coop with 11 dead chickens who appeared to have died recently due to there being no signs of decomposition,” the deputy wrote. “There was no food or water observed in the coop. I know this to be a violation of MCA 45-8-217, Aggravated Animal Cruelty, as Matthew inflicted cruelty to 11 chickens by killing them in their coop.”

According to jail records, Sorrells has pending accusations of:

• Four counts of violating a no-contact order
• Two counts of privacy in communications
• Stalking with one prior conviction
• Evidence tampering
• Aggravated animal cruelty
• Felony drug possession
• Possession of a stolen firearm
• Two counts of partner or family member assault causing bodily injury, with two prior convictions
• Strangulation of a partner or family member