Suspect in Great Falls homicide appears in court

GREAT FALLS (AP) — A man charged with killing a Great Falls man and fleeing, setting off a three-day manhunt in the hills north of Helena, made his initial appearance in District Court in Great Falls.

Branden Conrad Miesmer is charged with deliberate homicide in the shooting death of Cody Steve Bruyere, 26, late Sunday or early Monday.

Miesmer, 26, appeared before District Judge John Kutzman via video from jail on Friday afternoon. He did not enter a plea.

Public defender Matt McKittrick asked that Miesmer’s bail be reduced from $1.5 million to $250,000, arguing that federal and state law prohibits courts from setting excessive bail amounts.

Cascade County Deputy Attorney Ryan Ball called Bruyere’s death a “cold-blooded execution” and argued Miesmer’s bail wasn’t excessive, especially since he fled the scene of the reported crime and has possible contacts in Arizona.

Kutzman sided with the state on Miesmer’s bail amount.

“In this case we have a very, very serious alleged offense,” Kutzman said.

McKittrick also asked the judge to put pressure on the county attorney’s office to disclose the names and contact information of the witnesses as well as the address where the shooting took place, neither of which were included in the affidavit of probable cause that led to Miesmer’s arrest warrant.

The witnesses told investigators that after the shooting, Miesmer forced them to drive him to Helena, where there were eventually able to convince him to let them go.

The affidavit said that after Miesmer dropped off the man and woman, he led officers on a chase north of Helena. The vehicle was damaged after he hit a raccoon on Lincoln Road and he forced a man and two children out of a car near Lake Helena. Lewis and Clark County Sheriff Leo Dutton said Miesmer abandoned the vehicle near Hauser Dam and fled into the hills, without his sandals, which were found not far from the car.

Miesmer was arrested Wednesday evening, exhausted and suicidal, hiding in a homemade trailer at the bottom of a ravine about 1.5 miles from the dam, Dutton said.

Miesmer was under investigation for drug trafficking, Cascade County Attorney John Parker said in court documents. The shooting victim was found at a known drug house, Parker said, and was suspected of being involved in drug sales.

Parker said he expected Miesmer would face charges in Lewis and Clark County, as well. County Attorney Leo Gallagher was out of the office Friday.