Michael Brown pleads not guilty in Anaconda slayings; judge sets initial trial date

ANACONDA – Michael Paul Brown entered not guilty pleas to four counts of deliberate homicide and related charges Wednesday morning in Anaconda-Deer Lodge County District Court.

He appeared via video from the Butte-Silver Bow County Detention Center, where he has been jailed since Aug. 8.

The homicide charges stem from Brown allegedly shooting and killing four people Aug. 1 at the Owl Bar in Anaconda.

District Judge Jeffrey Dahood presided over the defendant’s arraignment and ordered that Brown, 45, be held without bond. He had been held on a bail of $2 million.

Dahood set a trial date of Jan. 12, 2026.

The penalties in Montana for a conviction of deliberate homicide include the possibilities of execution, life imprisonment or imprisonment in the state prison for not less than 10 years or more than 100 years.

About 30 people attended the arraignment. The crowd included David Gwerder, owner of the Owl Bar, who arrived at the bar Aug. 1 not long after the shooting to find his bartender and three regular customers shot to death.

He acknowledged that experience was deeply traumatic.

“It still is,” Gwerder said.

Brown was represented by public defender Walter Hennessey of Butte. He pleaded not guilty to the four homicide charges and to additional charges recently filed: theft, fleeing a police officer and attempted arson.

Authorities allege Brown walked into the Owl Bar on the morning of Aug. 1 and used a rifle to shoot and kill bartender Nancy Kelley and three patrons of the bar.

Court documents that would typically provide additional details about the crime remain sealed by order of Dahood, who ruled Friday that release of the documents could compromise Brown’s right to a fair trial.

The killings shocked residents of Anaconda-Deer Lodge County, a consolidated government that includes residents in the city of Anaconda and elsewhere in communities like Opportunity, a portion of Georgetown Lake and other areas with scattered population.

Authorities say Brown left the Owl Bar that day, changed clothes and fled in a stolen Ford pickup from the vicinity of the East 3rd Street bar, eventually heading west on Stumptown Road with police in pursuit. Authorities said he drove up a rugged road, abandoned the pickup and escaped.

After Brown eluded law enforcement, an ambitious manhunt ensued in the vicinity of Garrity Mountain and the Garrity Mountain Wildlife Management Area west of Anaconda. Brown was believed to be armed and was said to be familiar with the thickly wooded area.

During his time on the lam, many residents and some businesses took precautions. The Ranch Bar, which was not far from the search area, closed briefly. In town, Carmel’s Sports Bar and Grill locked its doors and required prospective customers to knock. Some residents ensured firearms were within reach.

Brown avoided capture until Aug. 8.

The day before, law enforcement had made a big push throughout the search area off Stumptown Road. A strong thunderstorm bearing lightning and cold rain followed. That combination might have flushed Brown out of hiding, authorities said later.

Brown had apparently taken refuge in a camp trailer on private property off Montana Highway 1 about 5.5 miles west of Anaconda. The property owner said later that he had met Brown face-to-face before dark on Aug. 7 in a startling encounter.

He said he elected not to alert authorities until the following morning because a night raid might have allowed Brown to escape again and might also have imperiled the property owner and others in the vicinity.

He said Brown told him he was freezing, that he intended no harm and that he’d made a mistake the week before.

A subsequent daytime raid by law enforcement agencies captured Brown and the community breathed a collective sigh of relief.

Brown was arrested and jailed after a medical exam.

Acquaintances have suggested Brown suffers from mental illness and conditions that might include PTSD from his time in the U.S. Army.

He lived next door to the Owl Bar and likely knew the four people he allegedly shot and killed: Nancy Lauretta Kelley, 64, Tony Wayne Palm, 74, Daniel Edwin Baillie, 59, and David Alan Leach, 70.

The mass shooting attracted national and even international attention.