Arraignment delayed for hammer attacker
Megan Strickland
Desmond Mackay, 35, is being held in Lake County Jail for allegedly attacking his father-in-law, John Barrows, with a hammer. Barrows died from his injuries on March 15.
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POLSON — A case of mistaken identity erupted into violence March 5 as Polson resident Desmond Mackay, 35, allegedly attacked his father-in-law and brother-in-law with a framing hammer, according to court documents.
John Barrows, 67, the father-in-law, was critically injured, flown to Kalispell Regional Medical Center and died on March 15 without ever regaining consciousness.
Mackay appeared in Judge Deborah Kim Christopher’s court on March 20 for arraignment, but the judge delayed the hearing for a week, until March 27 as a courtesy to the public defender.
An omnibus hearing for Mackay was scheduled for April 24 and a trial date was tentatively set for Monday, June 23.
A family member called 911 to report the altercation in the alley at approximately 7:11 p.m. on March 5 behind 106 Fourth Ave. W.
When officers arrived on the scene, two men were wrestling on the ground in front of a garage. The male on the bottom was Mackay.
The brother-in-law on top said Mackay “hit my dad with a hammer.”
Officers recovered a framing hammer in a snow bank adjacent to where the two men were struggling.
Court documents said an officer found Barrows in the doorway of a nearby garage. Barrows was unresponsive, was bleeding profusely from the head and had a large swollen lump on the left rear side of his head.
Mackay told the officer he didn’t mean to hit Barrows, that he thought the brother-in-law was coming back in the door.
A family member said he was in the garage with Mackay when the brother-in-law walked in, retrieved a car battery and exited the garage. Mackay grabbed a hammer off a nearby hammer rack and walked to the door the brother-in-law had exited and waited for the door to open again. Then Mackay jerked the door open with his left hand and swung the hammer with his right hand towards the head of the person in the doorway, which happened to be Barrows instead of the brother-in-law. Court documents said Mackay exclaimed, “Oh, I’m sorry.”
The brother-in-law was outside the garage and heard Mackay yelling obscenities and then heading for him with the hammer to strike him. The two men tussled, with the brother-in-law eventually holding Mackay down while being smacked with the hammer. Mackay told the brother-in-law he was trying to hit him not Barrows. The men had problems relating to work and money, according to court records.
