Lane Gibson, 20, has been charged with a felony count of witness tampering in connection to the Jan. 9 homicide of Terrell Johnson, 25, in Great Falls.

He was arrested Jan. 28 and is being held on a $150,000 bond.

While investigating Johnson’s death, a Cascade County Sheriff’s Office detective reviewed a law enforcement database profile for Johnson, which included a cell phone number he’d provided during a Dec. 30, 2025 jail booking.

The detective was able to confirm the cell phone number was registered to Johnson and contacted the provider to request location data.

Slaughter: Jan. 9 homicide victim died by multiple stab wounds

When the request was made, Gibson hadn’t been identified nor had Johnson’s cell phone been recovered.

The detective received the location data, which showed the phone was not near the CCSO office, where Johnson’s body and the vehicle he was in had been moved to, nor was it in the area Johnson and the vehicle were previously located, according to court documents.

The phone’s location appeared to move from the west side of Great Falls to the south side from the late evening of Jan. 9 to early morning of Jan. 10 with the location radius narrowing from 1,400 meters on Jan. 9 to 400 meters on Jan. 10 when location data stopped being shared.

On Jan. 10, the CCSO detective received historical cell phone data for Johnson’s number from the provider. The data was reviewed by other law enforcement agencies that told the CCSO detective the phone appeared to be around the Grand View Apartments.

In recent weeks, Sheriff Jesse Slaughter has been asking residents in the area of the Grand View Apartments, as well as an expanded area of the city, to share any surveillance video they might have on the night of Johnson’s death.

CCSO investigating Jan. 9 homicide; two homicide cases moving forward to trial

The CCSO detective spoke with a friend of Johnson’s who indicated she shared location data with Johnson via the iPhone messenger application and provided a screenshot of his last shared location, which appeared to be near 7th Street South and 13th Street South, the same general area of the apartment complex.

Detectives learned that Johnson had gone to Keith’s County Store with another person, then to Taco Bell with another, spending significant time at an apartment at 1605 Chowen Springs Loop, corroborated by Snapchat location points in the area, putting johnson there until about 3:30 a.m. Jan. 9.

Several other people were at the apartment, including Gibson, the defendant.

“Johnson was alleged to have left through the front door of the residence, and shortly after another individual, believed to be Gibson, left through the back door, though it was never confirmed where Gibson went,” according to charging documents.

On Jan. 16, an agent with the Montana Department of Justice’s Division of Criminal Investigation interviewed Gibson at the Great Falls Police Department.

He was Mirandized and agreed to speak with the agent, admitting he’d been at the Chowen Springs apartment at the same time as the victim.

Two other people who were in the apartment were also interviewed and told investigators that they heard Gibson and Johnson leave about the same time.

Gibson told investigators he left the apartment around 2:30 a.m. with been with another person.

On Jan. 27, detectives attempted to interview Gibson again after gathering more information regarding Johnson’s death, but he requested an attorney and the interview ended.

The same day, the person Gibson claimed to be with after leaving the Chowen Springs apartment was interviewed.

Gibson had previously claimed the person was an alibi witness, but the individual told investigators that over the last two weeks, Gibson had asked him to lie about Gibson’s whereabouts, according to court documents.

The individual told investigators that Gibson had told him he had a fight with his girlfriend so the individual had offered to be an alibi witness but after learning Gibson was the target of a criminal investigation, did not provide an alibi and shared screenshots of social media messaging with investigators, according to court documents.

Sheriff Jesse Slaughter said Jan. 29 that the homicide investigation is ongoing and further charges may be added.

“Gibson is considered a person of interest and is believed to have been with the victim in the hours leading up to the homicide,” Slaughter said.