FILED11/25/2020

Missoula County

Justice Court of Record
STATE OF MONTANA
By: Eda
__________________
Gillmore
BRIAN LOWNEY CR-610-2020-0004150
Beal, Alex
Deputy County Attorney
KIRSTEN H. PABST
Missoula County Attorney
Missoula County Courthouse
Missoula, Montana 59802
(406) 258-4737
ATTORNEYS FOR PLAINTIFF

IN THE JUSTICE COURT OF RECORD OF MISSOULA COUNTY,

STATE OF MONTANA

STATE OF MONTANA, Dept.

Plaintiff, Cause No.
-vs-
CHARLES MICHAEL COVEY aka AFFIDAVIT OF PROBABLE CAUSE
JESSE ALLEN NITCY,
Defendant.

STATE OF MONTANA )
: ss
County of Missoula )

BRIAN LOWNEY, Deputy County Attorney, Montana, being first duly

sworn upon oath, deposes and says:

I have read the law enforcement reports regarding the investigation of

CHARLES MICHAEL COVEY for allegedly committing the offense of:

COUNT I: DELIBERATE HOMICIDE, a felony, in violation of Mont.

Code Ann. § 45-5-102(1)(a).

 I believe that the facts as set forth in the law enforcement reports, if

true, constitute sufficient probable cause to justify the filing of the charges.

Those facts are as follows:

On 11/20/20 at approximately 12:47pm, Dorothy Williams called 911

to report her discovery of a deceased person near the River Front Trail at

its terminus with W. Front Street, Missoula County, MT. Missoula Police

Department officers responded to the scene and spoke with Williams.

Williams, who is employed as a nurse, indicated she began her lunchtime

walk on River Front Trial and noticed an unoccupied wheelchair near the

corner of a parking structure to the west of the trail. Williams approached

the wheelchair and noticed a male laying supine with his legs stretched out

in front of the wheelchair. Williams yelled at the person to determine

whether they were okay, but there was no response. Williams could see

there was clothing covering the person’s face, so she removed the clothing

and saw that the person’s face was covered in blood. Williams reported

that it appeared to her that the person’s head had been “bashed in”.

Williams indicated she checked the person’s wrist for a radial pulse but

found none. Williams indicated she replaced the clothing she had removed

from the person’s face and called 911.

 Missoula Police Department officers examined the scene. Officers

noticed that the person, later identified as Lee Roy Nelson, had no chest

movement and no respirations. Officers confirmed that Nelson had no

radial pulse. To examine Nelson’s head, officers had to move aside the

items of clothing Williams had discovered on Nelson’s face, including a hat

and a pair of pants. After doing so, officers observed a large bleeding

wound on the right side of Nelson’s face and scalp, which appeared to

have a white substance in it that may have been Nelson’s brain or skull.

Officers also found Nelson had no carotid pulse and determined he was

deceased. Following an autopsy, the Montana Forensic Science Division

classified the death as a homicide caused by blunt force injuries to

Nelson’s head.

Officers observed that on the southern concrete wall of the parking

structure, about 3-4 feet from Nelson’s head, there was blood spatter. The

spatter was low enough that it appeared Nelson’s head was on or near the

ground at the time the spatter was deposited. Further examination of

Nelson’s body revealed that he was wearing a black hooded sweatshirt,

which had two to three cuts through the hood in the area of the trauma to

Nelson’s head.
 Officers spoke with employees at the Poverello Center, who

confirmed that Nelson had spent the night there on 11/19/20, into the

morning of 11/20/20. Video from the Poverello Center depicted Nelson

speaking with a male in a red coat, later determined to be the Defendant,

inside the facility at approximately during the morning of 11/20/20. Nelson

then left the facility at approximately 7:45am. A short time after 8:00am,

the Defendant was captured on video walking to a red bicycle outside the

Poverello Center. The Defendant wheeled the bike towards a group of

three other males standing on the sidewalk. The Defendant then removed

what appeared to be a silver baseball bat from the bike and handed it to

one of the males, who appeared to be testing it by swinging the bat-style

object around. The male then returned the object to the Defendant, who

walked out of the video frame shortly thereafter. The Poverello Center is

less than a ½ mile from the scene of the homicide.

Officers also discovered that the Missoula Fire Department interacted

with Nelson near Taco Johns on W. Broadway Street at approximately

10:35am on 11/20/20, which is less than 1000 feet from the scene of the

homicide.
 Thereafter, officers spoke with witness Linda Burr. Burr indicated that

she observed Missoula Fire Department Officers interacting with a man in a

wheelchair (Nelson) as she was driving in the area on the morning of

11/20/20. Burr indicated she subsequently went to get coffee, and

thereafter turned southbound down Owen Street, coming to its intersection

with Front Street. Burr indicated at that point, which she estimated as

between 10:50 and 10:55am, she again observed Nelson, now speaking

with a man on the south side of Front Street, near the north side of the

parking garage (Nelson’s body was later discovered on the south side of

the parking garage). Burr described the male, later identified as the

Defendant, as Caucasian with an average build, who was about 5’10” with

a short beard and was in his mid-to-late 30s or early 40s. Burr indicated

the Defendant was wearing a black knit skull cap, a red hoodie or red

backpack, olive green pants and dark boots. Burr indicated that neither

party appeared aggressive towards the other at the time she observed

them. No other party was present besides the Defendant and Nelson.

Officers spoke with a second witness, Robert Wilson, who indicated

that a few minutes later, at approximately 11:00am on 11/20/20, he was

walking his dog on the south side of the Clark Fork River when he heard

yelling from the north of his location, across the river. Wilson turned and
observed a male wearing a red coat or hoodie with dark pants (the

Defendant) pushing another male in a wheelchair (Nelson) on the River

Front Trail System on the north side of the river. Nelson was yelling “stop”,

but the Defendant pushed Nelson westbound off the River Front Trail

system towards the southeast corner of the parking structure that was

located west of the trail. Wilson indicated he observed Nelson fall out of

the wheelchair near the parking structure. Wilson then observed the

Defendant leaning over Nelson in a crouched position. Wilson stated he

then heard 4-5 impacts that sounded like “a hollow metal pipe being

violently struck against something”. Wilson then observed the Defendant

run briefly back and forth on the southside of the parking structure, then

flee northbound up the River Front Trail towards Front Street. Wilson

indicated that at the time the Defendant fled, a parking meter attendant was

entering the lot to the east of the crime scene. Wilson then was unable to

observe where the Defendant went subsequently.

Officers showed surveillance pictures of the man who had interacted

with Nelson at the Poverello Center on the morning on 11/20/20 to several

witnesses, including employees and clientele of the Poverello Center.

Several witnesses identified the person as “Jesse James”, which is an AKA

of the Defendant. Further, officers noted that pictures of the man who had
interacted with Nelson at the Poverello Center bore a striking resemblance

to a suspect in an earlier crime investigated by the Missoula Police

Department known as “Jesse James” or “Jesse Nitcy”. In at least some

prior interactions with the Missoula Police Department, the Defendant was

wearing a bright red hooded zip-front sweatshirt. Lastly, officers

investigating the homicide realized that other Missoula Police Department

officers had interacted with the Defendant around 3:30pm on 11/24/20 after

the Defendant was reported at the Poverello for grabbing a male Poverello

client’s wheelchair and attempting to “tip him over”.

Officers recontacted the Defendant around 8:30pm on 11/24/20. The

Defendant was interviewed by Detective Guy Baker. The Defendant

initially denied knowing who Nelson was or interacting with him on

11/20/20. However, when shown the video stills from the Poverello which

depicted him interacting with Nelson on 11/20/20, the Defendant admitted

that person in the video was him and that he and Nelson had contact that

day. The Defendant then said he had further interaction with Nelson later

in the morning. The Defendant initially said he was across the street from

Nelson near the intersection of Front Street and Owen Street, but when

confronted with the witness statements contradicting his account, the

Defendant admitted that he and Nelson had been interacting in the way
described by Linda Burr. The Defendant said he was trying to “bum”

cigarettes from Nelson, but that Nelson had an attitude with him. The

Defendant denied touching or pushing Nelson’s wheelchair, despite being

confronted with witness statements to the contrary. The Defendant denied

knowledge of the Nelson’s homicide. However, the Defendant told officers

he threw the clothing he was wearing on the morning of 11/20/20 in the

trash shortly after the homicide (the Defendant estimated this was around

1:30pm on 11/20/20), because the clothes belonged to another person who

wanted them back. The Defendant also admitted to possessing a small

metal rod that he described as a “billy club”. The Defendant indicated he

also abandoned his “billy club” at the same time as he abandoned his

clothing, around 1:30pm on 11/20/20.

DATED this _25th__ day of November, 2020.

/s/ Brian Lowney_____

BRIAN LOWNEY
Deputy County Attorney

SUBSCRIBED AND SWORN TO before me, a Justice of the Peace, in

and for the State of Montana, County of Missoula.

Electronically Signed By:

Hon. Judge Alex Beal
Wed, Nov 25 2020 01:20:10 PM