In a surprise hearing at the Missoula County Courthouse on Friday morning, 26 year-old Augustus Standingrock chose to plead guilty to deliberate homicide and accountability to deliberate homicide in the deaths of two people in August of 2017.

Missoula County Attorney Kirsten Pabst said that Standingrock chose to plead guilty in the death 24 year-old Jackson Wiles and accountability to deliberate homicide in the death of 15 year-old Marilyn Pickett, and then attempting to destroy their bodies by dismembering them and dissolving them in plastic tubs full of acid.

Standingrock was scheduled to stand trial starting on January 4 in Missoula District Court before Judge James Wheelis.

On Wednesday, Standingrock's attorneys officially asked for a change of venue, due to the negative publicity toward their client in the local media.

Standingrock was returned to the Missoula County Jail and his bond remains at $2 million.

His co-defendant Tiffanie Rae Pierce also remains in jail on $2 million bond.

 

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