Juvenile charged in connection with March 22 shooting after being given second chance in November
Charles Jackson, 17, has been charged for underage drinking and obstructing a peace officer in connection with the early morning March 22 shooting downtown.
Jackson was released from the Cascade County Juvenile Detention Center on March 24 with GPS monitoring.
The Cascade County Attorney’s Office has filed a petition to revoke his probation for violating multiple conditions in the March 22 incident, including drinking alcohol, possessing a firearm and associating with Brodey Dezort, a juvenile also on probation.
Cascade County Attorney Josh Racki told The Electric that his office had obtained an arrest warrant for Jackson and that a judge had set his bond at $15,000.
Jackson was arrested by GFPD around 5 p.m. March 25.
Jackson appeared in youth court on Nov. 25 on several cases, with the prosecution recommending that he be sent to Pine Hills, the Montana Department of Corrections’ juvenile facility.
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Jackson had been a repeat offender with 15 youth court cases from 2022 to November, most of which were violent and property offenses.
The cases before Judge John Kutzman were related to sentencing conditions and new cases, but Jackson didn’t appear to have gotten into any new trouble for several months, according to the lawyers, his juvenile probation officer and the judge.
During that hearing, Kutzman said, “I don’t want to send you or anybody else to Pine Hills. I will if I have to.”
He said he wanted to see if Jackson could continue on the better path, and if not, Kutzman said he wouldn’t have much patience for it.
“You deserve the chance,” Kutzman said in November. “I’m going to give you some rope and see what you can do with it.”
Kutzman ordered that Jackson pay restitution and remain on probation until age 21, with the option of Pine Hills still on the table.
Several of the cases addressed during the November hearing involved Dezort and both boys were ordered to pay restitution.
In previous cases, Jackson had received a suspended sentence to Pine Hills with conditions that he not commit new crimes, not engage in any gang activity or associate with those in gangs or convicted of crimes.
In one condition ordered in November, he was expressly prohibited from associating with Deozrt, another boy, and two brothers, who are both currently facing charges in youth court, and are known associates of the juvenile gang involved in the Nov. 3 shooting near McDonald’s.
Great Falls Police officers were dispatched around 3:36 a.m. March 22 to 800 1st Ave. N. for multiple reports of shots fired in the area.
Upon arrival, officers spoke to two males outside the Leland Apartments who said they heard five gunshots fired, but were unsure where the sounds came from. They told officers that a silver car in the parking lot of Todd’s Music and Sound had just pulled in, according to charging documents.
A GFPD officer approached the vehicle and noticed movement in a blue Ford Fusion directly next to the silver vehicle.
The officer noticed two people ducked down in the front two seats, announced it was GFPD and gave several commands to show their hands.
The two were noncompliant, remaining ducked down, hiding themselves and their hands, according to court documents.
The passenger side door opened and an individual, later identified as Jackson, jumped out and took off running westbound through the parking lot, according to court documents.
The officer chased Jackson for several blocks around downtown, giving multiple verbal commands to stop.
Officers found a handgun in the blue Ford Fusion, almost under the front passenger seat where Jackson had been sitting, according to court documents.
Officers also found multiple shell casings outside the Kingdom Tattoos shop, where prosecutors said there had been a party.
Dezort was in the vehicle where the firearm was found, according to court documents. The vehicle was impounded for a search.
Jackson was transported to the GFPD for an interview, during which officers smelled alcohol on him.
Racki said a female was shot in the leg and didn’t appear to have been targeted.
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Officers obtained a warrant to search both Jackson and Dezort for gunshot residue, photographs, fingerprints, clothing and DNA.
Racki told The Electric that evidence had been collected but testing had not yet been completed.
The Cascade County Attorney’s Office filed a petition on March 24 to revoke Jackson’s probation.
Kutzman signed an order on March 25 setting a March 31 hearing and a $15,000 bond.
The county attorney’s office also filed a probation modification request for Dezort on March 23, asking that he be placed on GPS monitoring. Judge Elizabeth Best ordered the following day that Dezort be placed on GPS monitoring.
In their motion, prosecutors wrote that Dezort was “in a vehicle in the parking lot north of Kingdom Tattoos. Within the vehicle with [Dezort] was a firearm,” when GFPD responded to reports of gunshots at 3:32 a.m. March 22.
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Dezort is currently serving a suspended Montana Department of Corrections commitment under the supervision of Youth Court Services.
His probation officer requested that Dezort be placed on GFPS monitoring because he was out past curfew and in a vehicle with a firearm.
Youth Court Services “has concerns for community safety,” according to court documents.
Appearing in a suit before Kutzman on Nov. 25, Jackson answered questions about his actions in several cases that had occurred while he was on probation.
For one, in the summer of 2024, Jackson was accused of stealing a Dodge pickup; in another case in November 2024, he was accused of assault with a weapon; and in January 2025, he was charged with accountability to robbery.
In the January incident, Jackson was with Jeffrey Dezort, 19, at the Holiday Casino on Central Avenue West where they assaulted a man whose wallet fell out and Dezort took the victim’s money, according to court records and statements made in court.
Jeffry Dezort was charged with felony robbery in that incident.
Kutzman asked Jackson if he understood that he had been on probation in several cases, each of which had a condition to obey laws and not get any new charges.
As a result of that past behavior, the state recommended that Jackson be sent to Pine Hills until he turned 18 with two years of probation after that.
Jackson will turn 18 in October 2026.
The prosecution was also seeking restitution of $4,463.19, to be split between Jackson and Brodey Dezort, who was charged with him in three incidents.
He can do community service toward the restitution.
Kutzman said since he was considering sending Jackson to Pine Hills, he wanted to hear from his juvenile probation officer during the November hearing.
Shawn Baker has supervised Jackson since April 2024 and was coming up on two years as a juvenile probation officer, with previous law enforcement experience.
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He said that Jackson had serious charges in youth court that would have been felonies as an adult.
Jackson’s criminal activity was “quite frequent to say the least,” with a three-page history in youth court.
He was already on a suspended sentence to Pine Hills. Law enforcement and the court had been dealing with him regularly, but over the previous few months, they hadn’t seen much from him, Baker said in November, but he was still cautious.
Under cross-examination from Jackson’s defense attorney, Lindsey Mittlestadt, Baker said that he’d done well while on GPS this year and recently moved in with his mom from a residence near the courthouse.
Baker said that Jackson had signed up to take the HiSet for his high school diploma and was working to earn money to pay the fee.
Abram Baca, pastor at Potter’s House Church, testified on Jackson’s behalf in November, saying the teen started coming to church in March 2025 and since then, had become like a son to him.
Baca said that he’d become personally invested in Jackson, who’d spent the night at his house and been around his kids.
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Jackson was choosing better friends and trying to move past where he was, Baca said. He said Jackson didn’t have parental guidance before and didn’t fully comprehend the long-term consequences of his actions when he was hanging out with friends and doing something “stupid.”
Baca said “I fully believe in redemption,” and had seen a change in Jackson in recent months after going through a “spree of bad decisions.”
Baca said that he believes Jackson can decide to make a full comeback or if he made more mistakes, he was aware he’d been given every opportunity.
Mittlestadt said her office was also in the same situation a few months ago, thinking Pine Hills was inevitable, but “he’s been able to turn this around kind of in a miraculous way.”
Kutzman said there was a time when Jackson was “a thorn in my side” and in dealing with his many cases, thought there was no way out of a Pine Hills commitment.
He said it appeared Jackson had started to turn his life around in recent months, but the trick is whether he can sustain that.
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“It seems like he has his feet under him in a way he hasn’t before,” and “it sounds like he has made a lot of positive changes. I think he knows if he screws up, he’s going to Pine Hills.”
Jackson said that he got himself a job and took himself to church.
“I turned myself around. I’ve been doing good, believe I can still do good,” Jackson said in November.
Kutzman said it was frustrating in the past having to deal with Jackson what felt like every day and it took time away from his other cases.
At that point, “I was thinking if I’d ever run into a guy that needed to go to Pine Hills, it was you,” Kutzman said in November.
Then he came to court in a suit, something he sees from few others, including adult defendants, and his juvenile probation officer said he’d seen a significant change in Jackson’s behavior in recent months.
That spoke volumes, Kutzman said, plus his pastor, who was one of the “best mitigating witnesses I’ve ever seen.”
