After the Montana State Auditor’s office suspended the licenses of Mr. Bail’s Billings location and its manager, Anna Yarbro, in mid-March, the company’s attorney requested a hearing to appeal the decision. The auditor’s office has now scheduled that hearing for Aug. 14.
The auditor’s office, which licenses bail bonds companies and bail bondsmen, had been investigating Mr. Bail for nearly six months before a fatal shooting in Missoula involving four of the company’s bondsmen. After that, the auditor’s office suspended its license and ordered it to cease and desist all operations in Montana. The state also suspended and later revoked the licenses of two bail bondsmen charged in the shooting. The auditor’s office is still investigating the other two unlicensed Mr. Bail employees.
Ted Bidon, bureau chief and head of investigations at the auditor’s office, told MTFP in March that the complaints against Mr. Bail came after a reduction in the number of incidents with bounty hunters in Montana following the passage of a 2023 law boosting industry regulations.
“As the company Mr. Bail started ramping up activity in Montana and not obeying the law, we started seeing stuff happen again,” Bidon said last month. “We’ve been moving on this as fast as we can.”
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Bail bond company was under investigation before fatal Missoula shooting
Two of the four bail bondsmen involved in the fatal shooting of a fugitive in Missoula earlier this month were unlicensed, having failed the required test numerous times, and the other two had received temporary licenses less than a month before the shooting, according to the Montana State Auditor’s office.
Mr. Bail is a Virginia-based bonding company with nearly 30 locations nationwide, according to its website. The company has been operating in Montana since 2017, according to the auditor’s office.
On March 4, bondsmen Brandon Wakefield and Austin Mistretta, along with Mr. Bail employees Jorrell Nagel and Ryan Smith, came to Missoula to apprehend Joshua Wykle, according to charging documents. Video footage showed that the men approached Wykle’s vehicle parked at the Town Pump on Reserve Street. Mistretta allegedly pointed what appeared to be a rifle at the vehicle, according to the documents. When Nagel was walking behind the Saturn, the car began to reverse. Wakefield then raised his gun into a “shooter’s stance,” court documents allege.
Wykle died at the scene. According to charging documents, the other three men identified Wakefield as the shooter when questioned by responding Missoula police officers. In court filings, prosecutors said Wakefield also told officers that he shot toward the victim.
Wakefield, who pleaded not guilty to deliberate homicide, and Mistretta, who pleaded not guilty to attempted assault with a weapon, were issued temporary bail bondsman licenses Feb. 11, less than a month before the shooting. Nagel and Smith were unlicensed, having failed the licensing test multiple times in February. But both men were armed and wearing body armor that identified them as “fugitive recovery agents” on the day Wykle was killed, according to the order from the auditor’s office suspending the company.
Brittany Williams, the Missoula County prosecutor for Wakefield and Mistretta’s cases, earlier this month declined to comment on whether Nagel or Smith will be charged. Williams said the investigation into Wykle’s death and a state investigation are ongoing.
The state auditor’s office began investigating Mr. Bail in October, after receiving a complaint from the Billings Police Department. That tip alleged that an administrative assistant for the company was issuing bonds without a license, as directed by Yarbro, according to the suspension order.
Depending on the outcome of the investigation and hearing, the state auditor could fine the bondsmen if they are found to have violated relevant state laws, in addition to any suspensions, the auditor’s office previously told MTFP.
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