ANACONDA — Michael Paul Brown, the man accused of shooting and killing four people in an Anaconda bar in August, pleaded not guilty to seven separate criminal charges unveiled by county prosecutors in a Wednesday court hearing.
Anaconda-Deer Lodge County Attorney Morgan Smith said Brown had been charged with four counts of deliberate homicide, as well as arson, theft and intentionally evading law enforcement after he fled from The Owl Bar.
Brown appeared virtually by video with his two public defense attorneys from the Butte-Silver Bow Detention Center, where he’s been held since his arrest Aug. 8.
The hearing before District Court Judge Jeffrey Dahood was Brown’s first since he appeared on his arrest warrant in county justice court last month, and the first hearing related to the Aug. 1 shooting and ensuing manhunt that members of the public could attend.
The victims of the fatal shooting were 59-year-old Daniel Edwin Baillie, 70-year-old David Allen Leach and 74-year-old Tony Wayne Palm, all bar patrons, and 64-year-old Nancy Lauretta Kelley, the bartender. All four were residents of Anaconda.
More than a dozen people, including The Owl Bar owner David Gwerder, attended the hearing Wednesday morning. As his attorneys responded with “not guilty” pleas for each of the counts read against him by Judge Dahood, Gwerder’s wife, Kristie, made a sideways glance at her husband and shook her head in apparent disbelief.
At the request of prosecutors, Dahood agreed to hold Brown without bond until a future jury trial or a motion for conditional release by his defense attorneys.
Smith argued that Brown should not be eligible for bond because the state is entitled to seek the death penalty for deliberate homicide charges, and because Brown is suspected to suffer from mental health conditions that could make community monitoring difficult. She clarified that the state has not decided whether it intends to seek the death penalty in this case.
Walter Hennessey, one of the attorneys representing Brown, said he did not take issue with the terms of his client’s detention but reserved the right to seek bail for his client as the case develops.
Dahood said that the court agreed with the need to hold Brown without bond, adding that the state had presented adequate evidence that Brown had committed the alleged crimes.
“Considering all the factors of this and considering that I don’t see how we could monitor his mental health issues, which have been raised during this hearing here today, that’s a great concern for the court. Community safety is a consideration also for this,” Dahood said.
Smith repeatedly referenced additional court documents with “specific details” about the charges against Brown. Those filings have remained sealed by the court at Smith’s request, even after Dahood agreed late last month to lift a blanket order sealing the case as a whole — a move that criminal legal experts have said was highly unusual.
Dahood did not specifically address his previous decision to shield the case from the public or his recent reversal that allowed much of the case, including the charges and Wednesday’s hearing, to be public.
The judge said that Brown’s jury trial is currently scheduled for January 2026.
Gwerder, the bar owner, said he knew Brown for years and never had an issue with him before the day of the shooting, a sentiment echoed by his wife and daughter, Melissa Beaver.
“I actually really cared about Mikie. For years,” Beaver said.
All three expressed frustration at Brown’s not guilty pleas after the hearing adjourned, arguing that their interactions with law enforcement had led them to believe that the violence was planned in advance.
“There’s no understanding it. Whatever his excuse is going to be isn’t going to be enough to satisfy people’s curiosity. What’s done is done,” Gwerder said.
The Anaconda-Deer Lodge County Commission on Tuesday unanimously approved plans to support a memorial plaque and park for the victims of the shooting down the street from the scene of the tragedy. A benefit put on by local businesses and residents to raise proceeds for the development will be held in Anaconda Sept. 27.
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