Mental health evaluations continue for accused killer Michael Brown of Anaconda

Michael Paul Brown, 46, the Anaconda man prosecutors allege shot and killed four people at the Owl Bar on Aug. 1, will continue to undergo mental health evaluation and treatment at Montana State Hospital's Galen Campus.

Any trial proceedings have been stayed for at least another 60 days.

Brown and attorney Walter Hennessey participated virtually Wednesday morning in a status hearing in Anaconda-Deer Lodge County District Court.

Morgan Smith, attorney for the city-county, updated District Judge Jeffrey Dahood.

Dahood initially ordered the mental health evaluation in December.

Smith said proceedings have been stayed while defendant Brown is placed at the state hospital’s forensics facility in Galen for mental health evaluation “as well as potential restoration of fitness” to stand trial.

Smith said the state intends to file under seal updated mental health records and an “ongoing status treatment plan” for Brown at the state hospital.

She said the state's position is that Brown should remain placed at the Montana State Hospital, with a treatment plan as required by law.

Hennessey did not object.

Prosecutors allege Brown walked next door to the Owl Bar on the morning of Aug. 1 and shot and killed four people he knew, including the bartender and three patrons.

Brown was 45 years old that morning. He stole a pickup and drove west, with Anaconda police in pursuit, authorities allege. He abandoned the truck and fled into the brush, thickets, forests and open ground in the foothills of the Anaconda Range.

An ambitious manhunt followed, with local, state and federal law enforcement officers, helicopters, drones and dogs. Brown was said to know the territory well from past experiences hunting and hiking in the sprawling Garrity Mountain Wildlife Management Area.

Brown was captured Aug. 8 after moving out of the search area onto private property, where he encountered a startled landowner.

In September, Brown pleaded not guilty to four counts of deliberate homicide, along with attempted arson, theft and fleeing or eluding a peace officer.

The shooting victims were Nancy Lauretta Kelley, 64, the bartender, and customers Tony Wayne Palm, 74, Daniel Edwin Baillie, 59, and David Alan Leach, 70.

Several friends and acquaintances have described symptoms of apparent mental illness demonstrated by Brown through the years. The symptoms, as described, could suggest psychosis and a disorder like schizophrenia. Friends said Brown reportedly believed on occasion that he was John Wick, the movie hitman played by Keanu Reeves, or a wizard with powers inhibited by alcohol or drugs.

Others who knew Brown believed he suffered from PTSD from his time in the U.S. Army, which included a deployment to Iraq.

One subtype of schizophrenia, “paranoid schizophrenia,” is no longer an official diagnosis, according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Yet paranoia is a common feature of schizophrenia, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

“People with schizophrenia commonly struggle to tell what’s real and what isn’t,” the clinic reports. “They often have hallucinations and delusions and struggle with disorganized thinking.”

Cleveland Clinic notes, “Schizophrenia is almost always treatable, but it isn’t curable.”

Skeptics about Brown’s struggles with mental illness include David Gwerder, owner of the Owl Bar. He said he doubts a person who was psychotic could have avoided capture as long as Brown did in the wake of the defendant’s alleged murders of four people.

Dahood spoke to Brown at the close of Wednesday’s hearing.

“Mr. Brown, we’ll see you at the next hearing,” the judge said.

Brown listened without an expression and did not respond.