1 week Ago By DUNCAN ADAMS [email protected]
A national magazine once described Sheriff Dave Collings, an early law enforcement mentor for Scott Howard, as a “hard-bitten sheriff...
an old, boiled boot of a man in ratty brown tennis shoes.” The year was 1988 and a double murder in the Ovando area had attracted national media attention. Years later, in April 1991, Sheriff Jerry Fiske, another mentor for Howard, made national news in a very different way.
“The Weekly World News,” a supermarket tabloid, declared that a 7-foot Bigfoot had been captured near Deer Lodge. Fiske fielded a flurry of phone calls from around the country and wearily debunked the tale and the rumor he’d locked Bigfoot in the Powell County jail. That same year, in September, a murderous riot in the maximum security building at the Montana State Prison in Powell County killed five inmates in protective custody.
Howard participated in the subsequent investigation, as he had with Collings and state Investigator Ward McKay in finding and convicting the man who murdered Ned and Celene Blackwood near Ovando in July 1988. The killer, Terry Allen Langford, also participated in the prison riot. He was executed in February 1998.
Scott Howard died March 23. He was 65 years old. Howard served as sheriff of Powell County from 1995 until his retirement in 2018.
Rural Powell County sprawls across an area larger than Rhode Island and a bit smaller than Delaware. Howard was remembered this week as a respected member of the law enforcement community, a skilled investigator and someone who stayed cool in challenging situations. Chris Miller served as Powell County attorney from 1987 until 2006.
“Scott ws a really good guy in a crisis,” Miller recalled, specifically referencing the aftermath of the prison riot. “That was a pretty intense period and Scott managed to keep everybody focused,” he said. “There were so many examples of his ability to maintain his poise under trying circumstances.
He was really good at what he did.” Miller noted too that Howard played a key role in establishing a sophisticated 911 system in Powell County and making other emergency communication upgrades even though Howard sometimes encountered resistance from county commissioners. Gavin Roselles, current Powell County sheriff, ran against Howard for sheriff in a 2014 write-in campaign after budget cuts cost Roselles his job as a deputy sheriff.
A host of write-in ballots were rejected by elections officials because they were deemed flawed. In the end, Howard was re-elected. At the time, Roselles said his campaign against Howard wasn’t motivated by any sort of ill will tied to being laid off.
Last week, Roselles, who became sheriff in 2019, shared positive memories of predecessor Howard. “Over the years, he provided guidance, compassion and friendship to those around him,” Roselles said. “Sheriff Howard was very respected in law enforcement and was instrumental in investigating and solving several major crimes in Powell County and was often called in to assist other agencies with their investigations because of his experience and interview skills.
” Roselles said Howard was a mentor, “passing on a great wealth of knowledge throughout my career." “Even after he retired, he continued to offer me guidance and assistance as a special investigator for the Powell County and Lewis and Clark County Sheriff’s Offices,” he said. “After retirement, Sheriff Howard also remained active in the Powell County Search and Rescue.
His friendship, humor and knowledge will be greatly missed.” Ed Lester, sheriff of Butte-Silver Bow County, also spoke highly of Howard. “Sheriff Howard was the chairman of the board of the Southwest Montana Drug Task Force for many years,” Lester said.
“He was a no-nonsense guy, and he truly cared about the people of Powell County and all of southwest Montana. I learned a lot from Sheriff Howard.” Scott Howard was born in Missoula in 1959.
He spent his early years in in Deer Lodge and attended elementary school in Garrison. He and his mother later moved to Lake Holcombe, Wisconsin, where Howard graduated from high school. In 1984, he returned to Deer Lodge and worked with his father at their small engine repair shop.
He was subsequently offered his first law enforcement job by former Deer Lodge Police Chief Bill Wood. Among other cases that Howard worked as the sheriff of Powell County was the investigation of the murders of Greg Giannonatti, 57, and his mother, Beverly Giannonatti, 79, in October 2015. Howard recalled the case in an interview with The Montana Standard after his retirement.
“It was a big case, but I got a confession and the perpetrator took me to the bodies,” Howard recalled, noting they had been well hidden in a wooded area and might not have been discovered otherwise. David Wayne Nelson, who had worked as a handyman for the Giannonattis, confessed to the crime and pleaded guilty to two counts of deliberate homicide. He received two life sentences at the Montana State Prison.
Howard acknowledged during the interview with The Montana Standard that he often succeeded in establishing rapport with suspects. It was a gift he said he did not fully understand. “I’ve been able to sit down with fully Mirandized people who have done terrible things to others, and after a while they would confess and tell me why and how they did it,” Howard said.
Miller referenced Howard’s ability to put suspects at ease. “Scott was real,” he said. “He would take the time to connect with the person as a human being before he began grilling them like a tuna.
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