Prosecutors opened their murder case against Francis Tommy Chief Calf on Wednesday with testimony from the victim's best friend, who recalls holding the dying man in a bowling alley parking lot last August.Zeb Erickson figured he'd remember the night of Aug. 2 for what it was supposed to be - his last outing as a bachelor, celebrated with a hint of contradiction alongside his bride-to-be, as well as Phillip Lyster, his best man.
Instead he sees the 20-gauge shotgun, the 18-year-old Chief Calf at one end, and Lyster, 27, at the other, trying to disarm the stranger. He hears the blast, the desperate gasping of his friend, and the slapping of rubber soles on pavement as the gunman flees.
Witnesses testified that Lyster was trying to keep the peace when he approached Chief Calf, who witnesses say was waving the gun and then pointed it at Lyster. They say Lyster grabbed the shotgun barrel with both hands and pointed the weapon toward the ground, but as the men tussled over the gun, it discharged into Lyster's left side.
In addition to a count of deliberate homicide, Chief Calf also faces three counts of assault with a weapon, and a count of robbery, all felonies. He is accused of stealing the gun from a friend who lives near the bowling alley and pointing the weapon at several individuals, who ducked behind cars, before shooting Lyster.
Chief Calf ran from the scene after the shooting, but was caught by a police dog two blocks away, said Officer Sean Manraksa.
Deputy County Attorney Andrew Paul and Public Defender Scott Spencer questioned potential jurors for about three hours Wednesday morning before settling on a jury of seven men and five women.
Deputy County Attorney Jennifer Clark said Chief Calf made a series of bad, but deliberate, decisions that led up to the shooting, comparing each mistake to a path he paved, brick by brick, on his way to committing the murder.
“Phillip grabbed the gun and tried to get it away, but the defendant grabbed another brick as he pulled the gun from Phillip Lyster's hands and pulled the trigger,” Clark said, emphasizing that Chief Calf's life was never in danger, and that he easily could have put the gun down.
In November, Spencer filed a pretrial motion notifying the court of his intentions to mount an affirmative defense for Chief Calf, which allows the attorney to apply legal arguments of mitigation, justifiable use of force and necessity.
At trial, Spencer will reference police interviews with Anthony Curtiss, who admits threatening Chief Calf with violence in the 24 hours leading up to Lyster's shooting, putting Chief Calf in a frantic state of fear, according to Spencer.
To prove mitigated deliberate homicide, Spencer must show that Chief Calf was acting under the influence of extreme mental or emotional stress for which there is a reasonable explanation or excuse. According to police, Chief Calf was also extremely intoxicated at the time of the shooting.
Defense attorneys have retrieved “threatening” messages from Chief Calf's cell phone, and say the man expected to meet Anthony Curtiss at Westside Lanes, as per his invitation to brawl, but encountered Lyster, a Big Sky High School graduate, instead.
“Tom was petrified,” Spencer said in his opening statement. “It's dark, he's been threatened, there's yelling going on and there's someone coming at him.”
Witnesses attributed the yelling to groups of parking lot revelers heading home after an evening of bowling and drinking. Bonnie Erickson, Zeb's wife, said Lyster yelled back at the people in the same spirit, but never threatened Chief Calf.
The trial, which resumes Thursday in the Missoula County Courthouse, is expected to last through Friday.
District Judge Robert L. “Dusty” Deschamps III is presiding over the case.
Reporter Tristan Scott can be reached at 523-5264 or at tscott@missoulian.com.
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