A fatal stabbing in downtown Billings in 2018 was done in self defense, but the stabber faces a felony for hiding the knife from police, the county attorney said Thursday.
Johnny David Weathers, 37, has been charged with one count of tampering with evidence in the Aug. 29, 2018, death of 31-year-old Louis Old Bear.
Weathers has yet to be arraigned. There is a $20,000 warrant out for his arrest, and he’s listed as absconded from the Billings Probation and Parole office.
Prosecutors filed the case in July.
According to charges, Weathers stabbed Old Bear while trying to defend his friend during a fight. He’s accused of then leaving the scene with the pocket knife he used and cleaning it before ultimately telling detectives he committed the act in self defense.
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Weathers said he ran because he was on felony probation. He is serving probation on a burglary charge from 2003 and a bail jumping charge from 2012.
Weathers and a friend had been sitting in the picnic area at the Hardee’s on North 27th Street that night when Old Bear lay down on a bag of tools belonging to Weathers’ friend, sparking an argument, charges state.
The two persuaded Old Bear to get up and leave, but while they were packing up their belongings, Old Bear returned “with a knife and another male to back him up,” charges state.
After an argument, Old Bear and the man he brought “backed away,” but then returned after an unspecified period of time and both attacked Weathers’ friend, according to charges.
Weathers tried to defend his friend by helping him fight the two attackers, “but was unsuccessful,” the charges state. Fearing Old Bear would stab his friend amid the beating, Weathers stabbed Old Bear with his pocketknife.
Weathers told detectives he'd stabbed Old Bear in self defense. He said he ran when he saw blood, called his sister for a ride and went to the Motel 6 to clean up and change his clothes and wash the knife.
When officers arrived, a bystander was performing CPR on Old Bear. He was pronounced dead at the hospital.
The charges come nearly two years after the fatality.
“I think the delay was attributable to us wanting to make sure that there wasn't a homicide case here that we could prove,” Yellowstone County Attorney Scott Twito said Thursday. "It's just that we take those charging decisions very, very seriously."
Twito said it took time for investigators to locate witnesses for follow-up interviews, get evidence tested for DNA and schedule time to meet with Old Bear’s family. Twito said his office had been in touch with the family for more than a year but wanted to meet again before filing the tampering case in order to explain the charging decision.
No attorney has yet been assigned to represent Weathers.