Man pleads no contest to Jan. 2016 murder after plea deal

Seaborn Larson
Great Falls Tribune
Brett Allan McDermott pleaded no contest Thursday in Cascade County District Court to mitigated deliberate homicide in the death of Brad Boland, 60.

New evidence provided by his cellmates spurred a Great Falls man to plead nolo contendre on Thursday to the murder of a 60-year-old man in the victim's home in January 2016. 

Brett Allan McDermott pleaded no contest, not a guilty plea but essentially saying the evidence at hand would likely secure a conviction at trial, in Cascade County District Court to mitigated deliberate homicide in the death of Bradley Boland. His sentencing has not yet been set, but is expected to land about six weeks after Thursday's hearing. 

Prosecutors have recommended McDermott be sentenced to 40 years in Montana State Prison or with the Department of Public Health and Human Services' Montana State Hospital, if deemed necessary at his sentencing. 

The change of plea hearing was scheduled early on Thursday after McDermott signed a plea deal with the Cascade County Attorney's Office late Wednesday. 

McDermott has been incarcerated since Boland's death more than a year and a half ago. Blood evidence immediately tied McDermott to the crime, and he was initially charged with tampering with evidence for tearing off the paper bags detectives placed on his hands to preserve evidence, and reportedly trying to remove any evidence from his fingertips. 

Keith Hedges, a Great Falls Police Detective and lead investigator in the case, said since McDermott was placed in jail, a cellmate had come forward to law enforcement claiming McDermott had shared details of the murder with him. 

"This person also said (McDermott) described pushing the man down the stairs and punching him until he was dead," Hedges said during testimony. "He also said, Brad, he had it coming."

Law enforcement found Boland's body on Jan. 8, 2016, in his home, severely beaten with a fractured vertebrae and hemorrhaging in his skull. McDermott, who was living with Boland as a self-described home health care provider, walked across the street to an elementary school that day to call 9-1-1 and report the death to police. 

At the house, investigators found signs of a struggle in both the kitchen and the living room, where Boland's body was found. Other folks who had been to Boland's home a day earlier said the disarray was likely done the day police arrived at the house. According to court documents, McDermott told law enforcement he left Boland's house around 9 a.m. that morning and returned to find Boland beaten to death. 

Blood was mostly dry by the time investigators arrived at the property, and found largely in the living room but also in the texture of McDermott's watch, and in trace amounts were discovered the in the bathtub. Here, Hedges said, investigators believe McDermott tried to clean the blood from his shoes, which were also found in his closet with blood in the treads. 

McDermott was reportedly wearing a different pair of shoes when police arrived. The shoes found in McDermott's closet reportedly had Boland's blood on the outside and McDermott's DNA on the inside. 

Five days before Boland was found dead in his home, he had been hospitalized for an alleged assault committed by McDermott. 

When McDermott was arrested on Jan. 8, 2016, he was initially charged with assault and tampering with physical evidence, for the alleged Jan. 3 assault and for ripping away the bags detectives placed on his hands after the murder. In late June of that year, prosecutors also charged him with deliberate homicide for Boland's murder. 

In a plea agreement signed Wednesday night, officials agreed to drop the assault and tampering charges, and altered the deliberate homicide to mitigated deliberate homicide. The difference, essentially, is that mitigated deliberate homicide is committed when someone does so "under the influence of extreme mental or emotional stress for which there is reasonable explanation or excuse," according to state law. 

At Thursday's hearing, McDermott's public defender asked Hedges about the condition of the home in which Boland and McDermott had been living. According to Hedges, investigators found pants in which they appeared someone had defecated. They found food strewn throughout the home and it appeared that no one had attempted to use the garbage can for quite some time. Those who knew Boland said he was a "hopeless alcoholic" and was "prone to violent outbursts," Hedges said. McDermott was also homeless when he was arrested.

In previous court proceedings, experts deemed McDermott fit to defend himself at trial, although he could still be sent to Montana State Hospital for deep mental health issues. At Thursday's hearing, Cascade County Attorney Josh Racki indicated prosecutors would not argue against the defense's case for a sentence to the state hospital. 

-  Great Falls Police Detective Keith Hedges said Bradley Boland was a “hopeless alcoholic” and “prone to violent outbursts.” An earlier version of this story misstated who Hedges was referring to.