On the night of January 17, 2022, the life of Luke Simpson, a 42-year-old White male from Columbia Falls, Montana, was cut short by violence. Around 10 p.m., Flathead County Sheriff's deputies responded to reports of gunshots at a residence on Flathead Drive in the community of Evergreen. When they arrived, they discovered Simpson, who had been fatally shot, dead at the scene. A neighbor told investigators they heard what sounded like eight or nine fireworks and a man’s voice, then saw two vehicles leave the area.
An investigation into the shooting quickly led law enforcement to a suspect. Based on a description of one of the vehicles seen leaving the residence, detectives identified 21-year-old Tanner Doyle White of Columbia Falls. On January 23, officers conducted a traffic stop and arrested White, finding a firearm inside his vehicle. The following day, during an interview with detectives, White confessed to the killing.
He admitted that he had followed Simpson to the Flathead Drive residence and shot him with a 9mm handgun. White stated his motive was that his fiancée had been on a date with Simpson earlier that day. After the shooting, he fled the scene in a vehicle with his fiancée.
Authorities also learned that another man, Joseph Michael James Malinowski, had been with White on the night of the murder. More than two months after the shooting, Malinowski admitted to detectives that he had accompanied White. Investigators alleged that to help cover up the crime, Malinowski drove Luke Simpson’s vehicle away from the scene after he was killed. Malinowski was subsequently charged with felony tampering with or fabricating physical evidence.
Tanner Doyle White was initially charged with deliberate homicide. In July 2022, he entered into a plea agreement, pleading guilty to an amended charge of mitigated deliberate homicide, which specified that he had acted under the influence of extreme mental or emotional stress. On September 22, 2022, District Court Judge Robert Allison sentenced White to 35 years in Montana State Prison.
Joseph Malinowski also reached a plea deal, pleading guilty in July 2022 to the felony tampering charge. For his role in the cover-up, he received a five-year suspended sentence, in addition to a three-year sentence for a related probation violation. As of February 2024, Malinowski was back in jail after prosecutors filed a petition to revoke his suspended sentence due to a series of alleged probation violations.
