Alleged campground killer charged with deliberate homicide

The man arrested for allegedly killing one and wounding another in a campground shooting near Libby over the weekend made his first appearance Tuesday in Lincoln County Justice Court on deliberate and attempted deliberate homicide charges.

Garry Douglas Seaman, 63, of Kalispell is being held without bond in the Lincoln County Detention Center following his extradition from Flathead County. He was arrested May 24 — a day after the slaying — near his home in the Flathead Valley following a manhunt involving multiple law enforcement agencies.

Local authorities received word of a shooting at the Alexander Creek Campground near the Libby Dam at about 2:45 p.m. on May 23. Arriving deputies found a man dead and a woman suffering from multiple gunshot wounds.

According to newly filed court documents, the woman identified Seaman as the shooter while deputies provided emergency treatment. She offered up a description of his vehicle and told them it had “Kalispell plates.”

Prosecutors said in an affidavit that the woman previously had a romantic relationship with Seaman. The one-time couple was “going through a contentious separation, and recent instances of violence and requests for civil standby assistance have been documented by the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office,” wrote Deputy Lincoln County Attorney Jeffrey Zwang in an affidavit.

Court documents identified James Preston Freeman as the man Seaman allegedly killed. Freeman died of apparent gunshot wounds to the torso.

Detective David Hall of the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office led the investigation into the shooting, court documents said.

Deliberate homicide and attempted deliberate homicide are punishable by the death penalty, life imprisonment or at least 10 years in state prison.

News Editor Derrick Perkins can be reached at 758-4430 or dperkins@dailyinterlake.com.