Juvenile charged for allegedly assaulting his father while out on bond in shooting case
Updated June 25
Geronimo Standinghorn, the 14-year-old facing prosecution in the alleged November 2025 gang-related shooting near McDonald’s and the Phoenix Apartments, was arrested for assaulting his father on June 21.
He was out on a $50,000 bond in the shooting case.
On June 24, Judge Elizabeth Best revoked his bond and issued an arrest warrant for Standinghorn for violating the conditions of release by getting new charges and using tobacco.
He’s currently in the Cascade County Juvenile Detention Center on a $500 bond in the new case, according to court records and Cascade County Attorney’s Office.
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Standinghorn appeared before Best via Zoom from the JDC.
She maintained his $50,000 bond, ordered GPS monitoring if he does make bond and that only a custodial adult approved by youth probation could bond him out.
Standinghorn said “objection” several times during his hearing to which Best said he was nto doing himself any favors.
According to court documents, Great Falls Police responded to 625 1st Ave. N. for a reported assault on June 21. Upon arrival the officer spoke with Travis Standinghorn, who said his son, Geronimo, had struck him with a “club.”
The officer noted that he saw a large laceration on the right side of the father’s face, above the eyebrow.
The officer spoke with a woman at 721 2nd Ave. N. who witnessed the argument and broke it up. She told the officer that by the time she intervened, Travis Standinghorn already had a gash on his face.
GFPD officers contacted Geronimo Stanginghorn at his home on 13th Street North and asked him what had happened.
Geronimo told officers that he punched his father because he’d been yelling at him and calling him names. He said he was angry so he went downstairs to where his father was, cursed at him and punched him in the head three to four times.
Officers noted Geronimo had swollen knuckles on his right hand, according to court documents and he told officers his father did not strike him.
Geronimo Standinghorn, 14, was initially charged with felony counts of attempted deliberate homicide and tampering with evidence, and a misdemeanor count of assault.
The prosecution filed charges against him in adult court, but Best, the district court judge, moved his case back to youth court in February.
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In May, the prosecution amended his attempted deliberate homicide charge to assault with a weapon since, in youth court, that charge would get him a maximum youth sentence.
The prosecution is also seeking a gang enhancement, under state law, for sentencing.
During a June 18 hearing, Vince van der Hagen, Standinghorn’s defense attorney; Preston Rammell, the prosecutor; and the judge discussed the jury seletction process and instructiosn for jurors, specifically regarding the definition of a weapon.
They also discussed the process for informing the jury of the street gang information, as the jury must find a gang affiliation for the judge to be able to include the gang enhancement in sentencing.
van der Hagen argued a possible self-defense element since the shooting victim sprayed Standinghorn with bear spray.
Rammell said it’s not a lethal weapon.
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During the March 26 hearing, Rammell, the deputy county attorney prosecuting the case, said a plea agreement was being discussed, but as of June 24, the case is moving to trial.
Best told Standinghorn in March that the youth court “process is intended to get you to adulthood with support so you can be a productive citizen.”
She thanked Standinghorn’s mother for attending the hearing.
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Standinghorn had been held in the Juvenile Detention Center since November.
He was released on a $50,000 bond on March 8 with GPS monitoring, according to the Cascade County Attorney’s Office.
Standinghorn was in Judge John Parker’s court on March 3 for several pending misdemeanor charges, including a criminal endangerment charge related to a shooting near Papa Johns about 18 months ago, according to the Cascade County Attorney’s Office.
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Standinghorn was about a month shy of his 14th birthday at the time of the Nov. 3 shooting.
He was arrested for disorderly conduct in October, and in a JDC questionnaire, claimed to be a “regular member” of a specific local gang that had about 10 members. He also has tattoos with known gang references, according to charging documents.
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A 12-year-old was also charged with a count of tampering with evidence in the shooting. He was sentenced to three years in Pine Hills Correctional Facility, where he is currently, on that charge and a previous case, according to the Cascade County Attorney’s Office.
Standinghorn appeared in Best’s court for a Feb. 26 transfer hearing, which is when the court determines whether a juvenile charged with serious offenses in adult court should be tried as an adult or sent to youth court.
Best said she was “concerned about community safety with the level of violence here,” and understood from a report submitted to the court that Standinghorn would likely need some treatment and/or behavioral counseling.
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Standinghorn’s defense attorney, van der Hagen, hired psychologist Dr. Donna Zook to evaluate the boy for the Feb. 26 hearing.
Zook said Standinghorn had reactive detachment disorder, due to inadequate parenting, including a mother who had post-partum depression, wanting to kill him and abandoned him. She said his father had struggled with drug addiction.
Zook said that his behavior was not acceptable or safe for the community, but that he had the capacity for empathy and “he is not psychopathic.”
Since he showed empathy toward innocent people, Zook said she believed he was treatable and his behavior could be changed.
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Standinghorn hadn’t had the opportunity to understand and practice social skills, displaying impulsive, disorganized behavior, she said.
Best asked if that was typical of more children his age, and Zook said his behavioral development wasn’t at the level of a typical 14-year-old who would have better perception and understanding of social rules and regulations.
She said she’d have concerns about Standinghorn being tried in adult court with the possibility of incarceration with adult inmates.
“If it doesn’t kill him, literally, it’s going to turn him into a monster,” Zook said.
She recommended the case be transferred to youth court and that Standinghorn be treated for his detachment disorder.
Matt Darlington, a juvenile probation officer, said he began supervising Standinghorn in early 2025 on a shoplifting charge, then again on a since dismissed vehicle theft and other charges that were pending.
The boy had very little parental supervision, little scholastic achievement and was basically raising himself, he said.
Darlington said he had trouble locating Standinghorn’s father over the last year and believed the case should be tried in youth court, where the boy had the best access to services and a chance to improve.
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Rammell, the Cascade County deputy attorney prosecuting the case, said Standinghorn’s juvenile friends were gang-affiliated and it was likely the concerning behaviors would continue without intervention.
Speaking to Standinghorn during the Feb. 26 hearing, Best said the behavior of juveniles roaming the community with guns was “horrifying.”
Best said that in the long-term, the county had to consider community protection, the nature of the offense and also the nature of the person, who in this case is “frankly still a young kid.”
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She said to Standinghorn that she was holding him to a standard of getting better.
Best said that in the big picture, the community would be better served by Standinghorn going through youth court, rather than putting him in a situation where he wouldn’t get treatment and more likely warehousing him in the adult system with inmates who have higher criminal skills and then releasing him back into the community.
An updated 36-page charging document detailed more of the incident, notably the witness statement that the 17-year-old had stabbed Standinghorn was unsubstantiated and prosecutors wrote that it was unknown why the witness claimed she saw the victim with a knife or if he did in fact, have a knife. No other knives were located at the scene or on the victim and no other witness claimed to have seen him with a knife.
On Nov. 3, officers responded around 1:50 p.m. to the area of the McDonald’s on 10th Avenue South for reports of a fight, followed by additional information that someone heard a gunshot and someone had walked into McDonald’s with a gunshot wound, saying it had happened in the parking lot.
The 17-year-old survived, according to the Cascade County Attorney’s Office.
Medical staff at the Benefis Health System Emergency Department told investigators that the bullet narrowly missed his heart and later determined it had also narrowly missed his spine and collapsed one of his lungs.
Standinghorn was located with another known juvenile gang member, who is 16 and was sentenced to Pine Hills, the Montana Department of Corrections’ juvenile facility, in November. The boys were with two females.
The group matched the description of those involved in the McDonald’s incident and the one sentenced to Pine Hills had blood on him and a laceration on his right thumb. He initially claimed to have cut himself on a fence, but later said in an interview that he and two other juveniles, including Standinghorn, had gone to McDonald’s to confront the victim over an incident of him punching one of the boys a few weeks prior, according to charging documents.
Cascade County Attorney Josh Racki told The Electric last winter that no charges were filed in relation to that incident and he didn’t believe it had been reported to law enforcement.
The 16-year-old later told investigators that he had punched the victim in the back of the head and that’s how he cut his hand. The punch led to an altercation between the victim and the group, which fled, and the victim pursued with bear spray, according to charging documents.
He told investigators that as they were fleeing, he heard a gunshot and when he met up with the others, Standinghorn had a gun that he tossed before being contacted by police, according to charging documents.
The 16-year-old told investigators that Standinghorn said, “I shot him, but not sure if I hit him because he sprayed me,” referring to the bear spray, according to court documents.
During an interview, investigators noted that Standinghorn’s clothing was saturated with what appeared to be bear spray and he gave inconsistent statements, initially claiming he was sprayed by a random person, but eventually admitted to being sprayed by the victim, according to charging documents.
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He denied shooting the victim or having a firearm.
One of the females told investigators that she saw Standinghorn, her boyfriend, pull a gun from his waistband and point it at the victim, who was spraying bear spray, according to charging documents.
She said the two rounded a building corner and she heard a gunshot.
Detectives reviewed the security footage from McDonald’s, which showed, according to court documents:
- Standinghorn and three females are inside McDonald’s when the victim walks in and begins ordering food
- the group appears to notice the victim and Standinghorn appears to make a phone call
- the group looks out the window as if watching for someone
- on the outside cameras, six males, including at least three known juvenile gang members, are seen approaching from an apartment at the Phoenix
- on approach, the 12-year-old charged in the incident appears to be holding something bulky in his sweatshirt pocket, which investigators wrote was possibly a gun based on his history of carrying concealed weapons
- four of the males, including the two charged in the incident, go into the bathroom
- when they emerge, the victim is handing cash to a cashier and the 16-year-old sentenced to Pine Hills punches him in the face, appearing to make contact with the victim’s mouth, causing the cut to his right thumb
- the victim turns around and is attacked by the boys who continue to punch him inside the McDonald’s
- the victim fights back and the fight moves outside, with the six males eventually fleeing toward the Phoenix Apartments, but fail to gain access to an apartment
- the victim gets in his vehicle and drives toward the Phoenix Apartments, exits and follows the group southbound along the 1800 block of 9th Avenue South
- as the group is running, Standinghorn appears to be closest to the victim and reaching in a backwards manner consistent with pointing a gun
- the victim appears to flinch while Standinghorn is pointing at him and the group rounds a corner going east along the south portion of a building
- the males go in different directions, with the victim and Standinghorn going out of sight behind a vehicle
- seconds later, the victim emerges walking westbound along the building holding his chest, then walks into the McDonald’s and can be seen holding his chest and bleeding from the right side of his lip
Detectives also viewed surveillance footage from a residence behind the Phoenix Apartments that shows the same events from a different angle.
In this footage, it appears the victim began chasing the males after he exited his vehicle, but never appeared to catch them or make contact, according to court documents.
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As Standinghorn rounds the southeast corner of a building and runs northbound, after the victim is shot, he appears to have something small in his right hand that he puts back in his sweatshirt pocket before running eastbound. The victim never rounds the corner, further supporting “that the person closest to [the victim] at the time he was shot was [the 13-year-old],” according to the charging documents.
The victim told investigators that he didn’t know why he was attacked but recognized one of the males as his cousin.
The victim said that he chased the group and sprayed the male closest to him with bear spray as they were running. As they rounded the corner, he said the juvenile turned and pointed a handgun at him from 1.5 to 2 feet away, shot him, and continued running, according to court documents.
Detectives examined the victim’s injury and noted that the exit wound on his back was oblong, indicating that the bullet had destabilized prior to exiting his back, according to court documents.
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On Nov. 4, investigators found a small black handgun behind a piece of tin in a yard in the vicinity of the incident that had one cartridge in the chamber, which contained a full metal jacket copper-plated bullet.
On Nov. 5, detectives returned to the scene and located a bullet defect on a vehicle parked along 18th Street South that was directly west of the south wall of the building, indicating the bullet was fired almost directly west, according to court documents. Detectives noted the bullet impression in the defect was oblong, indicating it was destabilized and based on their training and experience, that meant it likely struck another surface before hitting the vehicle.
Detectives located a fired bullet in the roadway just below the vehicle that was deformed along its side, which was a full metal jacket with copper plating, consistent with the recovered handgun.
Based on the angle of the shot and positioning of the boys involved, “the only plausible explanation” is that Standinghorn fired the shot that struck the victim, according to court documents.
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Standinghorn allegedly coordinated the attack, participated by punching the victim multiple times and when the victim approached with “non-lethal” bear spray, he shot the victim at close range.
“The shot was not lethal, but narrowly avoided life-ending injury. Shooting at an unarmed (bear spray is not a weapon) person from close range and aiming at the chest is an action that has a high likelihood of causing death to another human being,” according to court documents.
On. Nov. 5, detectives were notified that the victim had received multiple harassing Instagram messages that mock him for being shot and threaten his life, referencing gang activity, according to court documents.
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During their investigation, detectives noted that “there has been no indication at this point that [the victim] has been involved in gang activity,” based on information from school resource officers, Great Falls Police officers heavily involved in tracking gang activity, interviews with juveniles, and from the victim himself, according to court documents.
The victim has been stabbed, shot and threatened with a firearm in previous cases, involving known gang members, making it “apparent that [the gang members] have been targeting [the victim] for some time,” according to court documents.
