15 Felonies This Week – Prosecutors Busy with Trial Preparation
The Missoula County Attorney’s office has been quiet for the past few weeks with felony offenses in the single digits, but the lull in the action came to a halt this week.
Chief Deputy County Attorney Jason Marks said the caseload is back to near normal.
“We filed 15 new cases this past week, which is not huge numbers for our office, but it’s definitely up over the two prior weeks,” said Marks. “There were domestic violence, some drug charges and burglary. Nothing terribly remarkable in terms of what we’ve charged so far.”
Marks said work continues in preparation for major trials in the next few months.
“We’ve got the Augustus Standingrock trial coming up in early January,” he said. “We also have James Bayford set to go in the first of January. He’s the gentleman that caused the crash between the Testicle Festival and Missoula in the shuttle. So, out of our homicide cases, those are the ones that are set to go at the beginning of the New Year.”
Standingrock and his co-defendant Tiffanie Pierce are charged with two counts of deliberate homicide and evidence tampering after allegedly killing and dismembering 24 year-old Jackson Wiles and 15 year-old Marilyn Pickett and then attempting to dissolve their bodies in vats of acid.