Missoula Crime Report: Smorgasbord of Cases and Trials This Week

Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) - The Missoula County Attorney’s Office filed 21 new felony complaints this week, which is one less than last week and higher than the weekly average. According to County Attorney Matt Jennings, there were seven violent crimes. 

“That’s a lot,” Jennings said. “Five of those were family violence, usually partner or family member assaults, people in domestic relation problems. We had one non-family violent act and we had one sexual assault case bringing that to a total of seven violent crimes. We had two endangerment crimes, both of which were driving-related and being under the influence. We had five property crimes and we had six drug crimes, which is quite a bit.” 

Jennings said all the drug crimes this week were meth-related. 

“We usually have a little smorgasbord of meth and fentanyl and a couple of other things, but it was all meth this week,” Jennings said. “I did read recently that the overdose deaths from fentanyl have been reducing, and I'd love to imagine that that's because of law enforcement and prosecution responses or cutting down on trafficking. But what I actually heard in that article is that it sounds like some of the supplies have actually just been weaker.” 

Jennings mentioned that the pills right now aren’t as strong as they were a couple of years ago. He said they take fentanyl particularly seriously because of the danger it poses to the community. There was also a conviction on a case this week involving sexual assault against a minor. 

READ MORE: Missoula News - Crime Reports

“One of the things that’s frustrating about our system is how long things take,” Jennings said. “That case was actually charged back in 2021, and it took this long to get it to a resolution, but we got a conviction and we got a good result. Crimes against kids, sexual violence against kids in particular, are right at the top of our pyramid of priorities. We pour a lot of resources into them and we've got some amazing prosecutors that make sure they protect our community and those victims, so we're happy to see that.” 

Last Friday, they got a conviction on a stalking case involving some scary behavior downtown. The Missoula County Attorney’s Office provides a weekly crime report every Friday morning at 9:00 on Talk Back. You can listen to Jennings’s full report below: