Covey, who had previously spent 17 years in prison, has been convicted of homicide but has not received a sentence. | Pixabay/JodyDellDavis
Covey, who had previously spent 17 years in prison, has been convicted of homicide but has not received a sentence. | Pixabay/JodyDellDavis
Missoula man Charles Michael Covey was found guilty by a jury last week for the death of a 65-year-old man.
Missoula County prosecutors filed charging affidavits against Covey, also known as Jesse Nitcy, in November of 2020 for the death of Lee Nelson. Nelson's body was found by a nurse along the north side of the river trail below the old Western Montana clinic buildings.
"This case investigation was led by Detective Guy Baker and involved all of the resources the Missoula Police Department had to offer," according NBC Montana. "This includes the patrol division, additional detectives and the crime scene investigators. This case was successfully prosecuted due to a lot of hard work by Deputy County Attorney Mac Bloom and Deputy County Attorney Caitlin Creighton."
A surveillance video was used to link Covey to the scene of the crime.
Court documents showed that a witness notified police that he saw a man matching Covey's description pushing a wheelchair-bound older man -- seemingly against his will -- until he fell out of the wheelchair. A sound of a hollow metal pipe striking something several times was heard afterward.
Covey has previously been imprisoned for 17 years for what his father described as "beating some people half to death" and hijacking a vehicle, The U.S. Sun reported.
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