Dustin Monke

People injured, and homes destroyed and damaged after tornado hits Baker, Mont.

BAKER, Mont. — An unknown number of people were injured, at least two homes were destroyed and as many as a dozen others were damaged after a tornado struck the east side of Baker just before 7 p.m. Saturday.

Dean Butori, the Fallon County deputy director of emergency services, said it’s believed the tornado touched down inside the southeast Montana city of about 1,900 people. Baker is about 15 miles from the North Dakota border and 100 miles southwest of Dickinson.

The damage, while not widespread, was significant.

“I’ve lived here my whole life. It’s the worst destruction I’ve seen,” said Steve Baldwin, a Fallon County commissioner and Baker resident was is acting as the Department of Emergency Services spokesperson.

*A photo of the tornado that struck Baker, Mont., on Saturday evening. (Submitted photo)*

Baldwin said he didn’t know how many people were injured or hospitalized, but “everyone is accounted for.”

“We’re just getting ready to go in and do a second assessment here, just to double check everything,” he said shortly after 10:30 p.m. Saturday.

Baldwin said electricity is out on the east side of Baker and that landline telephones are down.

He said at least seven homes were confirmed to have sustained significant damage. Two were destroyed and roofs were pulled off of at least five, he said. He said it’s very likely that others are also damaged.

“I was just right at the center of it there — the part that got hit the worst,” he said.

Baldwin said everyone is thankful no one was killed in the tornado because of the amount of activities taking place. Not only was Little League baseball being played at the time, the Montana High School Rodeo Association State Finals were being held not far from where the tornado tore apart homes.

Lori Hall, an off-duty 911 dispatcher who lives on the east side of Baker, said she saw the tornado form outside of the front door of her home and then watched as it hit her neighbors houses.

“The whole house is gone,” Hall said of one home not far from her own. “The neighbors dug them out. They were the first ones to be rescued.”

Hall said she saw an RV camper be lifted off the ground and get sent airborne by the storm, and watched as a horse fought to run against the high winds. She added that she later saw the same horse safe with its handler.

Emergency responders from Bowman County, N.D., and other neighboring Montana counties were called in to assist their Fallon County and Baker counterparts, Baldwin said.

The first report of the tornado was at 7 p.m., according to Todd Chambers, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Billings, Mont.

Chalmers said the tornado was relayed to them by a storm spotter four miles to the east of Baker.

He said a more accurate time of impact may be around 6:55 p.m. Chalmers said he viewed video and photos of the tornado impacting the town.

More information about the strength and the path of the tornado will become clear Sunday, he said. The National Weather Service is sending a team to Baker to collect data.

Chalmers said the storm system moved northeast to the Montana-North Dakota line, but it is unknown if it caused any further damage.

Derek Smith, a storm chaser from Oklahoma, said he got to Baker after the tornado had gone through.

“It was very confined. It’s very sporadic. It’s freaky how they work,” said Smith, who works for Live Storms Media. “One home was destroyed (but) the outbuilding, a metal shed, was totally unharmed with a lawnmower in it.”

Baker resident Dean Wang, who was working at the rodeo, said it was evacuated as contestants and spectators were taken to a storm shelter underneath the grandstand.

Wang said he watched as the tornado “touched down over (Lake Baker) and damaged several homes on the east side of town.”

He said the second round of the rodeo finals were suspended for the evening and will resume at 7 a.m. Sunday, but only if there is an ambulance available to be on scene. If not, Wang said the rodeo may have to be delayed further.

Decker’s Attorney Moves to Suppress Interrogation Confession

The attorney for a Dickinson man facing life in prison for allegedly sexually abusing a 6-year-old female relative asked a judge to suppress state’s evidence of a police interrogation video that shows his client confessing to the crime.

Gregory Paul Decker, 53, who is facing charges of continuous sexual abuse of a child, a Class AA felony, took the stand Tuesday before Southwest District Judge Dann Greenwood after watching his 30-minute interogation video from Jan. 1.

The video shows Decker admitting to the allegations without prompting and within minutes of being interviewed by Dickinson Police Cpl. Brandon Stockie. According to court documents, Decker allegedly touched the girl on her private areas “five or six” times during 2015.

Tuesday’s hearing represented one of two cases against Decker for continuous sexual abuse of a child. The other alleges that in 1997 and 1998, he engaged in approximately 10 sexual acts within another female relative who, at the time, was between 6 and 7 years old.

Decker was arrested the morning of Jan. 1, his birthday, just hours after Dickinson police were called to his home after reports of a fight.

Following an evening with family and friends to celebrate he and his wife’s birthdays, Decker was confronted about the alleged abuse and then punched in the face by a man, who has not been identified by the court other than being a family acquaintance. Decker was taken to CHI St. Joseph’s Health sometime after 12:30 a.m., received stitches around his eye and was then released to police, who took him to the Public Safety Center for questioning about the incident.

Decker’s attorney, Michael Hoffman, alleges in the motion to suppress that Decker did not understand that Stockie, the lead detective on the case, had read him his Miranda rights because he was in pain after being assaulted, was confused and had high anxiety, and knew he was being being called a child molester by family and friends. Hoffman also alleges Decker didn’t know why the detective was questioning him, and said the detective “stated he was there to get (Decker) help for (his) problem or addiction.”

Within about three minutes of being questioned by Stockie, and before the detective brought up the alleged sexual abuse, Decker asked him, “What do you want me to say, that I was molesting her?”

“Well is that what happened?” Stockie asked.

“Well, yeah,” Decker replied.

Decker and the girl’s mother were both questioned by Stockie, which led to Decker’s eventual arrest. After Decker admitted to sexually abusing the girl, he told Stockie he wanted to get help and said he had been sexually abused as a young child.

Decker told Stockie he feared that he would lose his wife and family, and that his home would be terrorized.

Hoffman argued that Stockie purposefully led Decker to believe he’d help him get counseling and didn’t lead him to believe he may be placed under arrest. Stockie said during questioning that he employed a ruse detectives frequently use to try and extract evidence from suspects, and that what he did was a legal interrogation tactic.

Hoffman later brought Decker’s intelligence into question, calling him a “vulnerable person.”

Assistant state’s attorney James Hope argued that because Decker was released by the hospital, he was fully capable of answering Stockie’s questions despite his injuries, and said Decker’s history shows no reason to believe he has any mental vulnerabilities.

Decker is being held at the Southwest Multi County Correction Center. He will have a pretrial conference June 14, and a jury trial is scheduled to begin July 6. He faces the maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. A pretrial conference for his other sexual abuse charge is scheduled for July 19.

Decker's attorney moves to suppress sexual abuse interrogation confession

Decker was arrested the morning of Jan. 1, his birthday, just hours after Dickinson police were called to his home after reports of a fight.

Within about three minutes of being questioned by Stockie, and before the detective brought up the alleged sexual abuse, Decker asked him, “What do you want me to say, that I was molesting her?”

“Well is that what happened?” Stockie asked.

“Well, yeah,” Decker replied.

Decker told Stockie he feared that he would lose his wife and family, and that his home would be terrorized.

Hoffman later brought Decker’s intelligence into question, calling him a “vulnerable person.”

Burglar who shot himself in head after standoff gets probation

The Reeder man who shot himself in the head after a standoff with Dickinson police last December was sentenced to three years of supervised probation Monday during an arraignment at the Stark County Courthouse.

Jeremy Mellmer, 32, had a five-year prison sentenced suspended by Southwest District Court Judge William Herauf after the judge agreed to the Stark County state attorney’s deal to keep the severely injured Mellmer out of the corrections system.

“He shot himself in the head and left himself in considerable poor health, which will greatly impact his life going forward as well as the reality of any extended incarceration,” said James Hope, Stark County assistant state’s attorney.

Mellmer pled guilty Monday to theft of property and burglary charges, both Class C felonies, after breaking into the home of Dickinson resident Bernard Deichert and stealing approximately $3,000 worth of firearms and other items on Nov. 24.

Mellmer, who wore a large neck brace and an eyepatch over his right eye, spoke in a gravely voice and mustered only one-word answers when responding to the judge’s questions.

Herauf said he was concerned about the proposed sentence, but agreed to keep Mellmer’s health burden out of the state’s hands.

“I’m going to go along with what’s been worked out, otherwise the state is faced with the problems that your health creates,” he said, before speaking directly to Mellmer about his future. “We’re not having this conduct again. None of it whatsoever.”

Joseph Mrstik, Mellmer’s court-appointed attorney, spoke on Mellmer’s behalf before Herauf agreed to the sentence.

“Through his own actions, Mr. Mellmer has significantly limited the ability to live his life and, frankly, if it weren’t for his father, he’d probably be out on the street and not doing very well,” Mrstik said. “My point is, he’s basically just taking it one day at a time, trying to make up for lost time and appreciating the fact that he’s still here.”

Mellmer escaped police during a traffic stop on Nov. 30. Police searched for him until Dec. 2, when they surrounded a house on the 900 block of Ninth Street East. The standoff ended when Mellmer shot himself. He has not been charged for that incident.

However, Mellmer is not done with court appearances.

He will have pretrial conference July 5 on charges of possession of marijuana with intent to deliver, a Class B felony, and possession of methamphetamine paraphernalia and carrying concealed firearm or weapon, both Class A misdemeanors. A July 20 trial is scheduled.

Hope said the state has few concerns about Mellmer committing further crimes following his final sentencing, solely because of his health.

“We’ll monitor his health condition and see how his recovery goes, and whether the health condition he has now is permanent,” Hope said in an interview.

Jail escapee punched in face, calls police

A Dickinson man wanted by authorities for escaping a South Dakota minimum-security facility nearly two weeks ago was arrested Tuesday morning by Dickinson police after he called them to report he had been punched in the face.

Paul Thomas Steiner, 62, was arrested shortly before 10 a.m. at a residence on the 300 block of East Broadway.

Steiner alleges that Terry Fussell, 51, of Dickinson, punched him while he was staying at Fussell’s home.

Steiner was taken to CHI St. Alexius Health Dickinson, where it was determined he had a broken orbital bone. He was arrested on multiple warrants and is being held at the Southwest Multi County Correction Center.

Steiner escaped from the Rapid City Community Work Center on May 20. He had been sentenced in March to five years at the facility after receiving his sixth charge for driving while intoxicated.

An aggravated assault charge for Fussell has been forwarded to the Stark County state’s attorney for consideration, Dickinson Police Capt. David Wilkie said Thursday.

No further information on the case was available.