Charges filed in 2005 murder case
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Almost five years after the alleged murder of 73-year-old Harold Mitchell, Jr., in St. Ignatius, police have arrested a Dixon man in connection with the case.
Nathan Ross, 21, is charged with one count of deliberate homicide and one count of tampering with or fabricating physical evidence, both felonies. He appeared in Justice Court March 30 and remains in the Lake County Jail after Judge Chuck Wall did not grant him bond.
According to charging documents, firefighters responded to a mobile home fire in the St. Ignatius area on July 7, 2005, and recovered Mitchell’s partially burned body from the home. The body was sent to the state crime lab in Missoula, where an autopsy determined that Mitchell died of a knife wound to the neck before the fire started. The investigation also showed that gasoline was used as an accelerant in the fire, and Mitchell’s death was ruled a homicide.
Nearly three years later, Lake County Undersheriff Jay Doyle received a letter from an inmate in the regional prison in Great Falls. In the letter, Clifford Old Horn claimed he was a witness to Mitchell’s murder.
Old Horn told Doyle and Lake County Sheriff’s Detective Mike Sargeant that he, Ross, Nigel Ernst and Kyle Brown planned to rob Mitchell, because they had heard he kept large amounts of cash in his home. When the four entered Mitchell’s home, Brown began beating Mitchell to make him tell where the money was hidden.
At that point, Old Horn claimed he left the house because he couldn’t stand watching the beating. A short while later, Old Horn said he saw Ross come out of the house, take a gas can from Brown’s car and go back inside. Later Ross, Ernst and Old Horn drove back to Dixon in Ernst’s vehicle.
According to the affidavit, Ross confirmed Old Horn’s story, adding that Ernst told Ross to clean up the bloody scene after Mitchell died. Ross poured gasoline on and around Mitchell’s body and left with Ernst and Old Horn.
County Attorney Mitch Young has not said whether the others will face charges in the case.
