Investigation of Plains man's death goes to state

A Plains man unsatisfied with the work of local law enforcement has managed to get the case of the death of his son bumped up to the Montana Department of Justice. That was some seven months ago, but now he's concerned that it's once again being put on the back burner. 

"I just want justice for Mark. He's not trash to be tossed by the railroad tracks," said Plains resident Pat Legard, who found the body of his son, Mark, with a gunshot wound to his head more than two years ago. However, even after investigations by the Plains Police Department and the Sanders County Sheriff's Office, the manner of death is still listed as "undetermined," which is unsettling for Pat, who finally hired an attorney, Jean Adele Carter, in an effort to get answers. Carter contacted Sanders County Attorney Naomi Leisz and Montana State Attorney General Tim Fox in Helena in hopes of getting things moving.

Carter and Legard were hopeful that the state's Department of Criminal Investigation would do a more thorough investigation and at least determine a cause of death. "I did not see evidence that it is suicide, but it's got to be one thing or the other. I can live with the facts," said Pat, who added that it's been so stressful his right hand constantly shakes uncontrollably. "I just want this to be over; I'm so tired."

On March 15, Mark Legard was found deceased in his bed wearing a CPAP machine, with his right hand around the machine tube and his left hand in his pants waistband. No gun was found in the general vicinity of the body and there were no shell casings found by Plains police, said 72-year-old Pat, who first thought his son had an a hemorrhage when he saw the blood. A handgun was found on a shelf in the next room, but Carter said the crime lab ruled that the gun was not used in the death of Mark. Authorities have yet to tell Pat the caliber of the bullet that killed his son. What puzzles the father is that if his son committed suicide, where is the gun and where is the shell casing from the gun that was used? He also wondered why a person would put on a CPAP if he was going to kill himself. "The county attorney has also told my lawyer that the sheriff's office has taken a stance that it was in fact a suicide, but since I am the one who found my son, to avoid the embarrassment of a suicide in my family, I myself must have removed the gun from the crime scene," he said. "I know with everything in me that my son did not commit suicide," added Pat, who wonders who tampered with the scene and believes there is indeed a murderer still on the loose. 

Rumors had started almost immediately that Mark's death was suicide, primarily because he had gone through some rough times, had been severely depressed, and was drinking heavily. However, his father insists that he had recently turned his life around, had a girlfriend and a nice job. Pat said his son had just received a promotion at Rehbein Enterprises and was in good spirits the day prior to his death. Plains Police Chief Shawn Emmett had initially said it was a suspicious case. Pat was questioned if he had moved the gun, but he told police he touched nothing. The case was turned over to the Detective Chad Cantrell of the Sheriff's Office in October 2019. The state DCI took the case when Cantrell retired, according to Sheriff Tom Rummel. "I'm not at liberty to talk about it. Any conclusions Chad would have come up with would have been passed on to the DCI investigator," said Rummel last week.

Late last year, prior to the state taking the investigation, Carter tried to get the county attorney to hold an inquest to determine Legard's death. Included in the Petition for Amended Writ of Mandamus was a sworn statement by Pat to support her request to get both the sheriff's office and the police department of Plains to release all their case files to Leisz, including interview records, reports, transcripts, cell phone records, and data from the CPAP chip, which would provide the precise time of death, something they still haven't told Pat. "The county attorney believed her hands were tied because law enforcement was not cooperating with her and would not keep her in the loop," said Carter, who added that Leisz contacted the Department of Justice herself last June. Carter thinks DCI officially took over the investigation in September of 2020. DCI interviewed Pat last December, which was the last time he heard from them.

"Mark's death is controversial, has had no closure, and it hangs over his friends' and family's heads like a big black cloud," said Carter in her petition. Carter said she filed for a hearing, which was set by the court for December 29, 2020, but two weeks prior it was continued by the agreement of Pat and the county in order to give the state time to work on the case. Carter said they were giving DCI 180 days to come up with something. "We have heard nothing since, although after the Wood trial was over I've left numerous messages and e-mails for the investigator to at least let us know they are working on the case, but no response," said Carter.  

Carter said that local law enforcement has designated Pat as an "interfering troublemaker" in his endeavor to get information. He was even called a person of interest, she said. Carter believes the case handled by Plains police and the sheriff's office was "seriously flawed," including not properly securing the crime scene. 

"The initial

investigation was carried out by Plains law enforcement, and it was a disaster," she wrote to Cox. Carter said the crime scene was "contaminated because of the number of people allowed to wander around and through the house right after the discovery of the body." In only five days after Mark's death, the property was cleaned and turned over to the home owner, Rube Wrightsman, who had been the county's undersheriff prior to Mark's death. Pat feels the case was mishandled by law enforcement and the coroner for several reasons, including that on the death certificate tobacco was listed as a contributing factor. "I would like to know what the use of tobacco could possibly have to do with a bullet in my son's head," said Pat in his statement to the DOJ. He has repeatedly said that law enforcement, both Plains and Sanders County, were leaning toward the notion of suicide.

"I had become more and more bothered by the idea that they were not truly trying to figure out what happened to my son. I personally did not see the evidence to substantiate a suicide, but I was objective enough to understand that I might not know everything that they had found," said Pat. "However, I also understood that calling it a suicide provided a convenient opportunity to sweep it under the rug. Case closed," he said.  

"I just want somebody to determine the cause of death," said Pat, who asks that anyone with information about the case contact the authorities. "We know it was a bullet wound, but was it him or somebody else that was involved. I am just a few short months from being 73 and I realize that I will probably not live long enough to see how this all ends, but I need some kind of closure."