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Marion Man Accused of Murder Fires Attorneys

Mark Bolton Ames is charged with killing his neighbor and had reached a plea agreement before his Feb. 5 sentencing

By Justin Franz

A Marion man accused of shooting and killing his neighbor in January 2014 fired his attorneys less than a month before his sentencing scheduled for Feb. 5.

Mark Bolton Ames, 53, is accused of deliberate homicide and had reached a plea agreement with prosecutors, but on Jan. 9 he filed a motion to dismiss council, stating that one of his public defenders, Nick Aemisegger Jr., “became visibly angry with me and raised his voice toward me while I was attempting to discuss important details of my case.”

According to court records, Ames lived in a duplex apartment next to Harold Gordon in Marion. Just after midnight on Jan. 12, 2014, Ames fired several rounds from an AK-47 into Gordon’s apartment. Gordon grabbed a shotgun and was about to confront his neighbor when Ames allegedly shot and killed him with a .32-caliber semi-automatic pistol.

Ames and Gordon had a long and troubled history. Gordon had filed a restraining order against Ames, but he was still living in the duplex apartment that Gordon owned.

In a plea deal from Sept. 6, 2014, prosecutors agreed to amend the charge from deliberate homicide to mitigated deliberate homicide if Ames pleaded guilty by Alford. An Alford plea is filed when a defendant believes that they are innocent but acknowledges that prosecution has enough evidence to find them guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. The plea agreement stated that prosecutors would recommend to the court that Ames be sentenced to 40 years in Montana State Prison with 20 years suspended.

However, just a month before his sentencing, Ames fired his public defenders, writing that they had been rude and had “put forth egregious misrepresentation of laws and facts related to key decision points in my case.”

A status conference has been scheduled for Feb. 20. A new sentencing has been set for Feb. 26.