Prosecutors say they have video evidence from the scene and a confession by Brown.
By Zeke Lloyd MONTANA FREE PRESS
Prosecutors who charged Michael Paul Brown with killing four people in Anaconda last summer have video evidence of the shooting from the scene and a confession by Brown, according to court documents unsealed Friday. The documents were originally under seal at the request of the prosecution team, but District Court Judge Jeffrey Dahood made almost all of the documents public after a legal challenge from Montana media outlets and a decision by the state Supreme Court.
The unsealed documents describe the evidence, but the evidence itself remains unavailable for public review.
According to the unsealed documents, cameras inside the bar recorded a man, whom police identify as Brown, in The Owl Bar before and during the Aug. 1, 2025, shooting. The documents indicate that the video footage shows Brown entering the bar around 10:30 a.m. that day with a bucket, a pizza box and a brown paper bag. Brown poured “a liquid from the brown bag into the bucket” before setting the pizza box on fire and putting it on the bucket, according to documents included in the unsealed files. The documents say Brown then exited the bar before re-entering with a rifle about 30 seconds later. The records indicate that footage shows Brown shooting the four people who were in the bar at the time: Nancy Kelley, David Leach, Daniel Baillie and Tony Palm. A paramedic later confirmed that all four victims died inside the bar, according to court documents.
According to the unsealed court filings, police pursued Brown while he was driving a white Ford F-150 until losing track of him near the end of a vehicle access road, according to court documents.
The Ford F-150’s owner reported the vehicle stolen the day of the shooting, according to court documents. A bullet recovered from one of the victims “is a match” to a rifle that authorities found during a search of Brown’s residence, according to a firearm and toolmark examiner’s analysis referenced in court documents.
Brown was apprehended by law enforcement Aug. 8, a week after the shooting. According to the recently unsealed court documents, Brown admitted to officers that he shot the four people in the bar, took the Ford F-150 and tried to evade law enforcement. According to the documents, Brown “endorsed several reasons that the events occurred,” including a dispute with the bar’s owner.
“Mr. Brown further told officers that he did all of this because the jukebox within the Owl Bar was digitally brainwashing Mr. Brown,” court documents said.
The court documents detailing prosecutors’ evidence against Brown became public Friday after a months-long effort by Montana media outlets, including Montana Free Press, to unseal them.
The prosecution asked Dahood to seal the documents in August. Andrea Moore, a communications officer with the Office of the State Public Defender, declined to comment after Montana Free Press reached out to Brown’s attorney, Butte-based Walter Hennessey, by phone on Friday. Anaconda-Deer Lodge County Attorney Morgan Smith declined on Friday to comment for this story. Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen has not responded to requests on Friday and Monday for comment.
Court documents contain Smith’s argument for sealing the documents: because “extensive media coverage and public engagement” could jeopardize Brown’s right to a fair trial.
“Many of the facts and evidence within the state’s possession have not been disseminated publicly and will be crucial to the state’s prosecution of this matter,” Smith wrote. “The details surrounding the commission of the crimes alleged in this case, should they be subject to public dissemination, would greatly prejudice the prospective jury pool and taint the ability to impanel an impartial jury.”
Constance Van Kley, an expert in criminal procedure and Montana constitutional law who is not party to the case, said that maintaining an impartial jury pool is a common priority for litigators.
“The idea can be that, before the trial, if potential jurors get specific details about the allegations, it may be hard to unring the bell,” Van Kley told MTFP Friday.
But Van Kley highlighted that concern over a tainted jury pool does not, in and of itself, usually justify sealing court documents.
“There are all of these other ways to secure a fair trial,” Van Kley said. “And so one of the ways in which you try to do that is potentially by changing venues, having the trial someplace where the jurors are less likely to know the victims, where jurors are less likely to have been exposed to, and influenced by, pretrial publicity.”
Van Kley said a judge can also make the jury selection process, which is called “voir dire,” more thorough.
“For a really high-profile case with multiple murder victims, you would expect there to be a more extensive voir dire, no matter what,” Van Kley said.
Brown pleaded not guilty in September 2025.
On May 6, Brown appeared in court for a status hearing after a months-long mental health evaluation. He is currently detained at Montana State Hospital’s Galen Campus, where the state continues to evaluate his mental health.
Anaconda Leader editor James S. Rosien contributed reporting.
