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Richland County Man Found Guilty in Death of
Kalispell Woman
Cody Wayne Johnston convicted of deliberate homicide three years after Nicole Waller went missing
BY DILLON TABISH OF THE BEACON
A Richland County man was found guilty last week of murdering a Kalispell woman on Valentine’s Day in 2013.
A jury in Sidney convicted Cody Wayne Johnston of deliberate homicide on Oct. 20 in the death of his on-again, o -again girlfriend, Nicole Waller. A sentencing date has not been set, according to Rich- land County District Court o cials.
Johnston was arrested and charged with murder in August 2015, more than two years after Waller, 31, went missing. Waller’s body has never been recovered.
According to court documents, Waller and Johnston grew up in the Kalispell area in the 1990s. Waller reconnected with Johnston in 2011 and the two started dating. At the time, Johnston was living in Fairview, on the Montana-North Dakota border.
Waller made numerous trips to visit Johnston but family members said the relationship was unstable and the couple had separated multiple times. In February 2013, Waller made another trip to Fair- view, but within a few days she told friends that the relationship was again deteriorat- ing and that she had ended it with John- ston, according to court records. She told multiple people on the night of Feb. 13 and morning of Feb. 14 that she was return- ing to Kalispell. That was the last any of Waller’s family or friends heard from her.
Waller was reported missing on Feb. 16 and her vehicle was found abandoned on U.S. Highway 2 near Poplar. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Montana Department of Justice took over the miss- ing persons case and a few months later announced that they believed Waller was murdered.
According to court records, evidence suggests that Johnston killed Waller on the morning of Feb. 14 and later disposed of her body in a barrel, although it has never been recovered.
That same day, Johnston allegedly asked a friend to help him move Waller’s Ford Expedition from Fairview to Pop- lar, a distance of about 68 miles, where he abandoned the vehicle on U.S. Highway
BRIEFS
Libby Man Pleads Not Guilty to Deliberate Homicide
A 42-year-old Libby man has denied allegations that he killed his girlfriend in early October.
Trevor Joseph Mercier pleaded not guilty to felony deliberate homicide in Lincoln County District Court on Oct. 24.
Nicole Waller and her daughter, Ashlynd. PHOTO COURTESY OF CARMEN KEIBLER
WHEN AUTHORITIES INTERVIEWED JOHNSTON SOON AFTER WALLER DISAPPEARED, HE TOLD THEM THAT HE HAD STAYED AT THE SHOP WHERE HE WORKED IN SIDNEY THE NIGHT BEFORE WALLER DISAPPEARED BECAUSE THEY HAD BEEN FIGHTING.
2. When the friend asked Johnston why they were moving the vehicle he said that he had found out Waller was cheating on him and he wanted to play a joke on her.
When authorities interviewed John- ston soon after Waller disappeared, he told them that he had stayed at the shop where he worked in Sidney the night before Waller disappeared because they had been ghting. He told o cers that he remained at the shop until noon Feb. 14, but cell phone records show he had actually gone back to Fairview early that morning. At least one witness told author- ities that they saw Johnston parked out- side of his home at about 7:30 a.m. with the engine running on his truck.
Phone data shows Johnston then returned to the shop he worked at and witnesses said he used a company com- puter to deactivate Waller’s cell phone, which he was paying for. Johnston then allegedly returned home to Fairview
According to court documents, Mer- cier allegedly killed 30-year-old Sheena Devine sometime during the night of Oct. 5 at her home in Libby.
Lincoln County Dispatch received a call at about 10 a.m. on Oct. 6 from someone who believed a friend had been assaulted sometime during the night. The
around 9 a.m. About a half-hour later, Johnston’s phone was turned o for three hours. It is during that time that inves- tigators believe Johnston disposed of Waller’s body.
Less than a week later, Waller’s sister told authorities that she had received a message from Waller’s Facebook account which read, “Had a lovely night, not com- ing home, don’t laugh at me, sorry for let- ting everyone down.” The sister sent a message back to Waller but never received a response.
Upon investigating the Facebook post, authorities learned that Johnston had reached out to at least three people ask- ing them to log on to Waller’s Facebook account and send fake messages stating that she was all right. He told at least one person that he wanted it done because police had been “hounding” him about his missing girlfriend.
dtabish@ atheadbeacon.com
Libby Volunteer Ambulance and Libby
Police Department responded to a home
in Libby soon after where they found
Devine’s body. According to local media
reports, law enforcement also found a
petition for a restraining order against
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Mercier on Devine’s kitchen table.
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OCTOBER 26, 2016 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM
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