GREAT FALLS — A 27-year-old Montana man who is serving a 100-year sentence in the state prison for killing a person he believed was an informant in a drug case has pleaded not guilty to a federal carjacking charge.
Branden Conrad Miesmer entered his plea on April 18. His trial is set for June 5 before U.S. District Judge Charles Lovell in Great Falls.
Prosecutors say Miesmer took a car by force north of Helena in September 2015 as he was fleeing officers seeking to arrest him for the shooting death of 26-year-old Cody Bruyere in Great Falls. The car he had been driving was disabled after it hit a raccoon.
Miesmer soon abandoned the second car and was the subject of a three-day manhunt in the hills north of Helena.