BOZEMAN, Mont. — A man who calls himself a white supremacist was charged with killing a man in a tent in southwestern Montana. He has pleaded not guilty to deliberate homicide and says he did it in self-defense, but detectives say the defendant’s story doesn’t make sense.
The 41-year-old Daren Christopher Abbey told the judge in District Court on Tuesday, “I plead not guilty.” The Bozeman Daily Chronicle said, “Dustin Kjersem tried to kill me.” He also said he wasn’t guilty of changing the proof.
When Kjersem’s girlfriend found his body in a tent south of Bozeman near Big Sky on Oct. 12, it was first thought that he had been killed by a bear.
Shot glasses and beer cans found in the tent by the police showed that someone else had been with Kjersem on October 10. Court records show that DNA tests on a beer can matched Daren Abbey and someone thought to be Abbey’s twin brother with people in the state’s crime database. It wasn’t possible for the brother because he was in jail.
It was Abbey who told police that Kjersem, 35, threatened him and his dog with a gun. Abbey then attacked Kjersem with a block of wood and a knife, stabbing him in the neck. Records show that Abbey did not tell police at first that he also used an axe in the attack. He told the police that he found the axe both inside and outside the tent. Court records show that he told police that he washed the axe and screwdriver in the creek.
Abbey said he didn’t tell anyone about the fight because he had a history of criminal crimes. He admitted that he took guns and a cooler full of beer from the crime scene. The next day, he went back to look for a beanie he thought he might have left there. Charge papers say he told police he took two cell phones and other things from Kjersem’s truck.
Gallatin County released an inmate information document that said Abbey was a member of a white nationalist group. State Department of Corrections records show that he has an iron cross with a swastika tattooed on his body.
Abbey is in jail and his bail is $1.5 million.
