Carlos Delao, a 45-year-old Caucasian man, was a single father raising two teenage children in Billings, Montana. His sister remembered him as a "good dude" who loved to fish, hunt, and build things. His life was violently ended on the evening of Sunday, January 8, 2023, while he was simply warming up his Chevy Tahoe in the driveway of his home on Avenue F.
According to surveillance footage, a man who Delao had never met before walked up to the driver's side of the running SUV.
The man, later identified as Thomas John Slevira Jr., opened the door and shot Delao once in the head. Slevira then pulled Delao’s body from the vehicle, left him on the ground, and sped away in the stolen Tahoe. An autopsy later confirmed that Delao died from a single gunshot wound to the head.
Slevira’s rampage continued through the neighborhood. A short distance away, he crashed the stolen Tahoe into a power pole and several other parked cars near Big B Bingo. He fled the wreck on foot and ran to a nearby house on Burlington Avenue, where about 25 people, including numerous children, were celebrating a child’s birthday. Slevira broke through a door and shot one of the men inside, Erik Brady, in the chest.
As the partygoers scrambled to escape, Slevira barricaded himself in the home’s basement, firing multiple gunshots out of the house. This triggered a tense, seven-hour standoff with Billings police. The ordeal finally ended after a SWAT team deployed chemical agents into the residence, forcing Slevira to surrender. He was taken into custody and treated for injuries he sustained in the car crash.
Slevira was charged with deliberate homicide for the death of Carlos Delao, as well as attempted deliberate homicide and other felonies for the rest of his crime spree. After initially pleading not guilty, Slevira entered into a plea agreement. He pleaded no-contest to deliberate homicide and guilty to the other felony charges. As of March 2024, the case is closed, with a judge having sentenced Thomas John Slevira Jr. to 140 years in Montana State Prison.
