DEER LODGE — A Montana judge entered not guilty pleas Tuesday on behalf of a handyman charged with killing a Deer Lodge man and his mother during a confrontation over the theft of 1,700 ounces of silver, Powell County officials said.
David Wayne Nelson was arraigned before District Judge Ray Dayton in Deer Lodge, County Attorney Lewis Smith said. Nelson remains jailed without bail. A trial date has not been set.
Nelson, 53, is charged with two counts of deliberate homicide in the Oct. 24 deaths of Gregory Giannonatti and Beverly Giannonatti. Nelson confessed to the killings on Nov. 29 and told authorities where they could find the bodies and other evidence, court records said.
Nelson confessed to attacking them in the bathroom of Beverly Giannonatti’s deceased ex-husband’s house during an argument over 17 missing 100-ounce bars of silver, prosecutors said. Nelson also is charged with stealing the silver and disposing of evidence, including the hammer he used to strike Greg Giannonatti.
Nelson sold the stolen silver for about $26,000 at a gold and silver shop in Missoula, prosecutors charged.
Public defenders Sherri Petrovich-Staedler and Walter Hennessey of Butte asked that Dayton enter the pleas to theft, deliberate homicide and obstructing justice on Nelson’s behalf because they hadn’t decided whether to request a mental health evaluation. The attorneys reserved the right to ask the judge to set bail.
In Ravalli County, prosecutors petitioned to revoke the suspended portion of Nelson’s sentence for a 1998 kidnapping and accountability to robbery.
On Dec. 23, Nelson denied violating his probation. Prosecutors allege he killed the Giannonattis and traveled to Missoula without the permission of his probation officer to sell the stolen silver. He was ordered held without bail on the probation violation as well.