In Montana, Michael J. Ackerman admitted to murder and a gun charge after three people were shot inside his home.
GREAT FALLS, Mont. — A federal plea agreement narrowed the criminal case against Michael J. Ackerman before a judge sentenced him to 15 years and six months for a triple killing in Poplar.
Ackerman, 74, was first accused of three counts of second-degree murder after three people were found dead in his home on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation. In January, he pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree murder and one count of using a firearm during a crime of violence. The plea avoided a trial and left U.S. District Judge Brian M. Morris to decide the prison term.
The sentence became the final major action in a case that began with an accusation carrying a possible life term. Prosecutors asked Morris to impose 27 years and six months. The defense sought less, pointing to Ackerman’s age, limited criminal history and methamphetamine use. Morris chose 186 months, then added five years of supervised release. The result was a sentence below the government’s request but above the defense position. It also closed the trial track for a case involving the deaths of Earlene Lucy Jones Ackerman, 65, Matthew Earl Black Thunder, 41, and Winona “Nona Sioux” Longee, 35.
The government’s facts came largely from Ackerman’s statements to law enforcement and what officers found after entering his residence. Court filings said Yellowstone County sheriff’s deputies in Billings received a call early Sept. 14, 2025, reporting that Ackerman had admitted killing three people. Deputies contacted Ackerman in a Billings house. After they read his Miranda rights, he agreed to speak. He said the shootings had happened Sept. 11 at his Poplar home, where he and the other people in the residence had been using methamphetamine. He told deputies he believed the victims were “setting him up.”
Ackerman’s account described two rooms and four spent casings. He said he was in a bedroom with Jane Doe 1, who had a pistol in her hand. He said he picked up his Smith & Wesson 9 mm pistol and shot her twice in the head. He then heard John Doe and Jane Doe 2 moving in the next room. He said he walked into that room while they were sleeping and shot both of them. Ackerman told deputies they would find the bodies in his Poplar home. Later public reports identified the three victims by name and described their family and household ties to him.
The search of the home followed a separate legal step. Fort Peck Law and Justice Department officers went to the residence after Yellowstone County contacted them. No one responded. Officers obtained a telephonic warrant from Fort Peck Tribal Court and entered at about 5:30 a.m. They found three people dead from gunshot wounds. Four 9 mm casings were near the bodies. Those findings supported the federal complaint filed against Ackerman, also known as Michael J. Littlebull. He appeared Sept. 17 in Great Falls before U.S. Magistrate Judge Timothy J. Cavan, who ordered him detained pending further proceedings.
At the first appearance stage, the case was framed as a three-count murder complaint. Prosecutors said second-degree murder carried a maximum penalty of life in prison, a $250,000 fine and five years of supervised release. By the plea hearing on Jan. 29, the charges to which Ackerman admitted were one murder count and one firearm count. Chief U.S. District Judge Brian M. Morris presided and set sentencing for June 3. Local reports later said the sentence was imposed the week before that scheduled date. The public record does not show that the plea agreement fixed the sentence in advance.
Sentencing filings gave both sides a way to argue about punishment without retrying the facts. Prosecutors stressed that three people were killed and that Ackerman used a firearm during the violence. The defense called the case “a conundrum,” citing a man with little criminal history who committed a sudden and severe act after methamphetamine use. The defense said the victims included Ackerman’s wife of 35 years, a stepson he raised from early childhood and the stepson’s girlfriend. It also wrote that there appeared to be no motive, beyond the drug-fueled belief described in the court record.
The plea did not erase the number of deaths, but it changed the legal posture. Ackerman did not face a public trial where jurors would hear testimony, review exhibits and decide guilt. Instead, his admissions and the government’s factual summary became the base for sentencing. The judge had to consider federal sentencing rules and statutory factors, including the seriousness of the crime, the defendant’s history and the need for punishment. The defense’s description of Ackerman as polite, respectful and warm during the legal process sat beside the government’s account of three fatal shootings inside a home.
The federal prosecution also reflected where the killings happened. Poplar is on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in northeastern Montana. That placed tribal law enforcement at the search scene and federal prosecutors in the courtroom. The FBI, Fort Peck Tribes Department of Law and Justice and Yellowstone County Sheriff’s Office conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kalah Paisley prosecuted the case. The first report reached deputies in Billings, but the bodies were found in Poplar after tribal officers obtained the warrant. The path from call to search to federal charge shaped the case from the start.
Several facts remain limited in the public summaries. Records do not explain what happened in detail before the first shot, beyond the reported methamphetamine use and Ackerman’s belief that the victims were setting him up. They do not include a full public account from relatives of the victims or from neighbors near the home. They do not say why Ackerman traveled or ended up in Billings before deputies contacted him. The available record is strongest on the confession, the warrant, the discovery of the bodies, the casings, the plea and the sentencing decision.
The legal effect is clear. Ackerman stands convicted in federal court and is serving a 186-month prison sentence. If released, he will be under supervision for five years.
Author note: Last updated June 29, 2026.