Man pleads no contest in shooting incident near Stumptown Road in 2024

An Anaconda man will not contest the charges against him stemming from a December 2024 incident near Stumptown Road where he is alleged to have fired nine rounds at police officers. 

Steven R. McCulloch Jr. appeared before Judge Jeffrey Dahood in 3rd Judicial District Court in Anaconda-Deer Lodge County on Wednesday, July 30 where he pleaded no contest to one felony count of attempted deliberate homicide and five felony counts of assault with a weapon – one of which was amended from attempted deliberate homicide per a plea agreement with the State of Montana. A felony count of criminal mischief and a misdemeanor count of partner or family member assault were dismissed per the plea agreement. A pre-sentencing investigation was ordered and the defendant remains in custody pending sentencing. 

While a plea of no contest is not an admission of guilt, it does allow the court to sentence the defendant. The state is recommending a sentence of 40 years in prison with 20 of those years suspended for attempted deliberate homicide, and the state will withdraw its request to seek a penalty enhancement for the use of a weapon in the commission of the offense, but will also request that the court impose a parole restriction of 10 years on this sentence. For the assault with a weapon charge that was amended from attempted deliberate homicide, the state is recommending a 10-year suspended sentence to run consecutively to the sentence imposed for attempted deliberate homicide. For the four other counts of assault with a weapon, the state is recommending a 10-year prison sentence for each count with none of the time suspended, but with each one to run concurrently with the other sentences in this matter.

According to the affidavit filed by the State of Montana in support of the charges, on Dec. 19, 2024 a woman called ADLC Dispatch to report that her husband had been yelling at her, had been drinking alcohol and had smashed his phone and threatened to do the same to hers, and that he had discharged a shotgun out of the back door of their home and that as a result she had fled the residence and was calling from another location on the property.  ADLC Law Enforcement officers were dispatched to the scene, and later were joined by Montana Highway Patrol troopers as they staged at points of cover around the house while an officer used the vehicle's public address system to communicate commands to the defendant to exit the home with his hands up, according to the affidavit. 

After being on the property for over 30 minutes with no response officers staged at different positions behind cover around the house and continued to try to get the defendant to exit the house, at which point they heard five rounds discharge from inside the house and break through one of its windows from behind a dark curtain, according to the affidavit. About a minute later, four additional gunshots rang out, and one of the troopers spotted what appeared to be the long barrel of a semi-automatic firearm, according to the affidavit. About five-and-a-half minutes after the second series of shots were fired, officers heard a single muffled gunshot from inside the house that sounded like a small-caliber firearm, the affidavit states.

Officers then made visual contact with the defendant, who yelled "help" but would not exit the residence as they commanded, stating to him that they could not help him until he exited the residence unarmed, according to the affidavit. This persisted for about 40 minutes until he did exit the residence, at which point they saw he appeared to have a self-inflicted gunshot wound and he was taken to an ambulance, records show.