It will be at least 60-days before a trial can begin for 46-year old Michael Paul Brown (pictured), the accused shooter of Anaconda residents in that town’s Owl Bar. Deer Lodge-Anaconda District Judge Jeffrey Dahood granted the request of both attorneys in a status hearing earlier this week. All charging documents, except those pertaining to Brown’s mental health evaluation, have been unsealed, on orders of the State Supreme Court.
Here’s a summary of what those unsealed documents are saying. Surveillance video captured the entire episode. It shows Brown entering the bar carrying a bucket, a pizza box and a brown paper bag. In the video, Brown set fire to the pizza box and left the bar. Moments later, he returned with a rifle and opened fire. The 4-people inside were all shot dead.
The charging documents say Brown admitted to the killings, saying he was the rightful owner of the Owl Bar, claiming the bar’s jukebox was digitally brainwashing him.
Through his Public Defender, Brown had pleaded not guilty in September to separate counts of arson, homicide, theft and evading law enforcement. It appears that is confession to the 4-courts of deliberate homicide remains intact.
Brown has been undergoing treatment at the Montana State Hospital in Warm Springs since mid-March. The state, we’re being told, is trying to get him “well enough” to stand trial…his defense will probably hinge on him not “being well” when he committed the murders.
