A Flathead County jury on Thursday night discovered 37-year-old Jonathan Douglas Shaw responsible of deliberate murder and tried deliberate murder within the September 2021 dying of Matthew Hurley, the previous supervisor of a Kalispell health heart, and the taking pictures of fitness center patron William Keck within the parking zone of Gasoline Health and Diet.

The decision got here in at about 7:40 p.m. following greater than 4 hours of deliberations. Shaw was remanded to the custody of the Flathead County Sheriff’s Workplace. A sentencing listening to is scheduled for Sept. 21.

Decide Dan Wilson presided over the Flathead County District Court docket trial that started July 10. Proof and testimony within the case spanned 4 days and wrapped up a day sooner than scheduled, with Shaw testifying because the protection’s solely witness.

Closing arguments ended on Thursday afternoon, with deputy Flathead County attorneys Ashley Frechette and John Donovan sustaining that Shaw’s actions weren’t justified when he shot two individuals on Sept. 16, killing Hurley and injuring Keck.

All through the trial, they pointed to Shaw’s aggressive demeanor towards fitness center managers Hurley and Matthew Underhill when he fired his loaded 9mm pistol after “listening to a message he didn’t wish to hear,” when the Gasoline Health staff approached him to revoke his membership and refund his charges. Prosecutors additionally stated that the defendant fired 5 pictures at Keck, the fitness center member he engaged in a shootout with, and supposed to kill him.

“The defendant testified that this was a warzone,” Frechette instructed jurors. “He likened it to a fight incident. This incident was a warzone of the defendant’s personal making.”

Protection attorneys Colin Stephens and Paul Simon maintained all through the trial that Shaw acted in self-defense, feeling threatened when Hurley and his assistant Underhill aggressively approached him within the parking zone, the place the defendant, having not too long ago been evicted from his Kalispell condo, had been sleeping in a single day in a parked trailer. Shaw instructed the jury that he thought the staff have been reaching for weapons in the course of the confrontation, prompting him to shoot Hurley 4 occasions. He later admitted he by no means noticed any weapons.

“He was mistaken, and his actions have been affordable in gentle of the circumstances,” Stephens stated.

Shaw additionally testified in the course of the trial that Keck fired the primary shot in the course of the parking zone shootout and that he acted in self-defense.

The jury, nevertheless, sided with the county prosecutors who emphasised that the final phrases that Hurley heard earlier than Shaw shot him 4 occasions was “you’re gonna die” and that his intent was to kill him when he discharged the firearm. They have been additionally satisfied that Shaw shot Keck with the intention of killing him.