On the evening of November 17, 2023, in the Bonner/West Riverside area near Missoula, Montana, the life of 46-year-old Caucasian male Jeremiah Marker was cut short by a fatal gunshot. Deputies from the Missoula County Sheriff's Office were dispatched to a property on Antelope Drive following a report of a shooting. Upon their arrival, they discovered Marker inside a tent with a gunshot wound to his abdomen.
He was unresponsive and, despite being rushed to a local hospital for emergency medical care, he was pronounced dead.
Present at the scene was Ronald James Duggin, a 44-year-old man who resided in a trailer on the same property. The investigation into Marker's death quickly centered on Duggin, who was taken into custody. According to Duggin's account of the events, he heard strange noises coming from the tent where Marker was staying with his girlfriend. Duggin claimed that when he went to investigate, he saw Marker kneeling over his girlfriend in a manner that led him to believe she was being harmed. He stated that in response to this perceived threat, he retrieved a. 22 caliber semi-automatic handgun and shot Marker. After the shooting, Duggin said he unloaded the weapon and instructed another person on the property to call 911.
However, a starkly different narrative was provided by Jeremiah Marker's girlfriend, who was also in the tent at the time of the incident. She told investigators that she and Marker had been peacefully residing in the tent for three days and that there was no altercation or dispute occurring when Duggin approached. She expressed confusion and shock over Duggin's actions, insisting that Marker was not attacking her in any way and that the shooting was entirely unprovoked and without justification.
Following the investigation, the Missoula County Attorney's Office charged Ronald James Duggin with one count of deliberate homicide in connection with the shooting death of Jeremiah Marker. Duggin made his initial court appearance on November 20, 2023, where a judge set his bail at $1 million. The state has indicated that it will not be seeking the death penalty in this case. If convicted of the charge, Duggin could face a sentence of life in prison. He remains in custody at the Missoula County Detention Center as the legal proceedings in this case continue.
