Not guilty pleas entered in aggravated assault case

Two males have denied allegations that they and a third male attacked another man outside his residence in Anaconda last month.

Anthony Fitzpatrick and Ryan Snow appeared in 3rd Judicial District Court on Wednesday, Feb. 1, where they each pleaded not guilty to a felony count of aggravated assault. Fitzpatrick was released on $25,000 bond and Snow on $30,000 bond. Entry of plea for a third defendant, Mark Gonzalo, was continued until next week as his attorney was unavailable.

According to the affidavit filed by the State of Montana in support of the charges, on Jan. 15, 2023 Anaconda-Deer Lodge County Dispatch received a report of an assault on the 700 block of West 4th Street in Anaconda. Four officers responded to the scene, where they located a man who reported that he had been jumped by three males outside of his residence. 

The man reported that Fitzpatrick had called him and told him to come talk outside, and that when he went outside he set his phone down to record the interaction, but said that after the attack the males stole his phone and that the three – Fitzpatrick, a second male he later identified as Gonzalo, and a third male – had left in a white car, according to the affidavit. The man agreed to be transported to Community Hospital of Anaconda, where his injuries were determined to be significant, including a fractured skull and bleeding on the brain, so he was transported by Life Flight to Missoula for emergency surgery, according to the affidavit. 

In the course of their investigation, officers applied for and were granted a search warrant to photograph any injuries and obtain DNA samples from Fitzpatrick for a possible match with the male's clothing, and also obtained a search warrant for his residence, his phone and the clothing and shoes he was wearing, informed him of his constitutional rights and asked him who the third male was, whom he stated was Snow, according to the affidavit. 

The affidavit goes on to state that Fitzpatrick later informed officers that he had believed the man was stalking a female and that this had made him angry, that he and the other two males had gone to his residence "to teach [him] a lesson," and that he had punched the man three times, but that he had backed off while the other two continued to attack, according to the affidavit. 

If convicted of aggravated assault, a felony, the defendants face up to a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $50,000 fine.