Posted: Saturday, January 27, 2007 12:00 am
Suspect surrenders after brief standoff
GREYBULL - A man wanted in connection with a shootout outside Bozeman, Mont., was arrested here without incident following a brief standoff Thursday.
Chris Wagner, 33, will be held at the Big Horn County jail in Basin until he can be transferred to Montana's Gallatin County to face a charge of attempted murder.
Authorities say Wagner tried to kidnap Michael Peters, 33, southeast of Bozeman on Jan. 17. Both men began shooting, and both were wounded. Peters, who was shot in the torso, face and hand, was hospitalized. Wagner fled.
Investigators said they traced a call Wagner made from a pay phone in Greybull and began looking for him around the town. When they found where he was staying, they surrounded the house and locked down a nearby school.
Wagner stayed in the house for about 10 minutes before coming out.
"I think when he looked out the window he recognized he was fully overwhelmed," said Big Horn County Sheriff Ken Blackburn. "He came out with his hands in full view. Everything went according to the textbook."
Wagner is wanted in Creede, Colo., on first-degree assault and domestic violence charges, said Sheriff Fred Hosselkus of Mineral County in Colorado. Wagner is accused of hitting his former girlfriend in the head in October 2005, causing brain injuries.
Wagner was out of jail on bail, awaiting trial, when he broke off his ankle-bracelet monitor and left the state, Hosselkus said.
Man pleads guilty in shooting
CHEYENNE - A Cheyenne man pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and battery with a deadly weapon for shooting his friend in the head at a New Year's party.
Brian Nazareno, 25, entered the guilty plea Thursday, describing for District Judge Nicholas G. Kalokathis how he'd been playing with the .38-caliber revolver and pulling the trigger when his friend John Raines, 20, put the barrel against his head and told him to pull the trigger one more time.
Nazareno did, and shot Raines in the head.
Police found Raines on the floor of his apartment early the morning of Jan. 1 and later arrested Nazareno. They also arrested Amanda Harrison, 19, on a charge of being an accessory after the fact.
Assistant district attorney Hugh Kenny said Raines was seriously injured, "but miraculously has made a recovery."
Nazareno could get up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine when he's sentenced.
Skier dies in Targhee crash
JACKSON - A skier died this week at a Jackson area resort after apparently colliding with a tree, authorities said.
The 20-year-old man died Thursday at Grand Targhee Resort in Alta, according to a Teton County Sheriff's Office news release.
The victim, whose name was not released, was skiing with friends and family but was the last person to descend the hill and no one witnessed the crash, according to the sheriff's office.
The man was wearing a helmet but appeared to have suffered severe trauma to his torso, it said.