Juvenile appears in court on charges related to March 22 downtown shooting
Charles Jackson, 17, appeared in court on March 31 on charges related to the March 22 downtown shooting.
Appearing before Judge John Kutzman via Zoom from the Cascade County Juvenile Detention Center, Jackson entered a plea of not true.
He’s been charged for underage drinking and obstructing a peace officer.
Jackson was released from the JCD on March 24 with GPS monitoring, but since he was on juvenile probation at the time of the incident, the Cascade County Attorney’s Office 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.
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Kutzman ordered that Jackson be picked up and held for a hearing on a $15,000 bond.
After the March 31 hearing, Jackson remains in custody on that bond.
Theresa Diekhans, the county attorney prosecuting the case, said one of the reasons for the probation revocation request was the new charges.
Kutzman said the hearings on the new charges and revocation would likely be combined and set for two to three weeks from now.
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.
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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.
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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.
Cascade County Attorney Josh Racki said a female was shot in the leg and didn’t appear to have been targeted.
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 hadn’t yet received results of the gunshot residue testing since the Montana crime lab no longer conducts those tests, so they have to send it to other labs.
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.
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.
During the March 26 hearing, Judge Elizabeth Best said she was going to honor Kutzman’s order and maintain the $15,000 bond for Jackson.
She said she understood the high bond because “when we have gunfire occurring in our community, which happens virtually every single day, we need to keep the community safe.”
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.
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.
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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.
