Montana man pleads not guilty, claims he killed man killed in tent in self-defense

Bozeman, Mont. (AP) — A white supremacist accused of killing a man in a tent in southwestern Montana has pleaded not guilty to first degree murder and said he acted in self-defense, while investigators say there are inconsistencies in the defendant’s account.

Darren Christopher Abbey, 41, told District Court Judge Peter Oman on Tuesday: “I certainly do not plead guilty. Dustin Kiersem tried to kill me,” the Bozeman Daily Chronicle reported. He also pleaded not guilty to tampering with evidence.

Kjersem’s death in October was initially ruled a bear attack after his girlfriend found his body in a tent south of Bozeman near Big Sky on Oct. 12.

Investigators found glasses and beer cans in the tent, indicating that someone else was with Kjers on October 10. DNA tests on the beer cans matched two people in the state’s criminal database, Darren Abbey and someone believed to be Abbey’s twin brother, court records say. The brother was excluded because he was serving a sentence in prison.

Abby told investigators that Kjersem, 35, threatened him and his dog with a gun, and he attacked Kjersem, first with a wooden block and then by hitting him in the neck with a screwdriver. According to court records, Abbey initially did not tell investigators that he also used an ax in the attack. He also told police he found an ax both inside and outside the tent. He told police he had washed the ax and screwdriver down the creek, court records state.

Abby said he didn’t report the fight because he had a felony. He admitted to taking a cooler of beer and a gun from the crime scene, then returning the next day to look for a beanie he thought he might have left there. He told investigators he also took two cellphones and other items from Kjersem’s truck, charging documents state.

An inmate information document released by Gallatin County says Abby has indicated an organizational affiliation with white supremacists, and Department of Corrections records show his tattoos include an iron cross with a swastika.

In 2011, Abby pleaded guilty to malicious harassment, a felony, in Kootenay County District Court. Abby was charged with a hate crime after a July 3 incident in which he told a black man at a bar that black people don’t belong in the Bayview and, according to police, “he better leave before something happens.”

After the man left the bar to avoid the fight, Abby followed him outside, hurling racial slurs at him and threatening to hit him, police said. The man punched Abby in the face, knocking him out with one punch.

“Abby, who suffered facial fractures, told deputies he thought he had been hit with a brick, but witnesses confirmed it was a simple punch to the head in self-defense,” the Southern report said. Poverty Law Center.

Abby, who describes himself as a “skinhead”, was sentenced to five years in prison for the hate crime, with the possibility of parole after three years.

Abby is being held on $1.5 million bail.