YCSO deputy justified in 2023 killing of Ballantine man, inquest jury finds
Following a coroner's inquest Wednesday, a jury found a Yellowstone County Sheriff's Office deputy was justified in fatally shooting a Ballantine man.
Robert Singleton, 66, was killed at his residence in Ballantine while two deputies were attempting to serve a warrant for his arrest on the night of Oct. 4, 2023.
Prosecutors from the Yellowstone County Attorney's Office presented the case to the jury of seven, arguing that Singleton wanted to die and forced officers to shoot him, escalating the encounter by producing and ultimately firing, a gun. The role of county attorneys in coroners' inquests has drawn criticism due to their close working relationship with law enforcement, according to previous Gazette reporting .
Over the course of about five hours, jurors heard testimony from the deputies involved, their lieutenant that night, the YCSO detective who investigated the shooting, the state's Department of Criminal Investigation investigator who reviewed the YCSO investigation and the forensic pathologist who examined the body.
The jurors also watched body camera footage of the five minutes between the deputies knocking on the door and Singleton firing his weapon.
Deputies Joshua Leonhardt and Brandon Zidack arrived at Singleton's residence at about 11:20 p.m. to serve a warrant for his arrest on a sexual assault charge out of Rosebud County. Singleton spoke briefly with the officers through a window and then asked for permission to go put clothes on.
When he returned, officers told him through the window that there was a warrant for his arrest for a sexual assault and asked him to open the door.
"No, it's time to die," Singleton responded.
Zidack observed that Singleton had a gun and the deputies took cover around the corner of the house. Singleton came out onto the front porch and Leonhardt pleaded with him to drop the weapon.
"Robert, it doesn't have to go this way, listen to me" Leonhardt said.
Leonhardt, who at one point led crisis intervention training for YCSO, told Singleton that he would have his day in court to contest the charges. Singleton responded that he had previously been a corrections officer and that he knew how people accused of sex crimes are treated in jail.
Meanwhile, Zidack shouted at Singleton to drop the weapon.
"We don't want to do this. We don't want to shoot you," Leonhardt said.
"Let's do this," Singleton responded.
Three seconds later, Singleton from his porch fired his weapon twice — "diagonally down" in the direction of the officers, per Zidack's testimony — and Zidack fired back 10 times, hitting Singleton with nine bullets. The entire encounter between Singleton returning from putting on clothes and his death was less than 90 seconds.
The deputies rendered aid to Singleton when reinforcement arrived, but medical responders pronounced him dead at the scene.
Ed Zink, the deputy chief of criminal litigation for the county attorney's office, argued that Singleton's comments and actions posed a lethal threat to officers' safety. He said that officers attempted to de-escalate Singleton and then acted within "what they believed their very limited options were."
Bradley Tucker, the DCI major case investigator who reviewed the case, said the officers "showed great restraint" in not shooting Singleton before he fired.
Zink reiterated throughout the hearing that Singleton determined the trajectory of the encounter and forced the deputies to use lethal force.
"His actions effectively took control of their actions," Zink said. "That provocation was going to force a result."
Zink called the shooting an "uncontroverted, very clear suicide by law enforcement," during his closing argument.
"(Singleton's) future was untenable to him and he made that decision," Zink told the jury.
Jurors in a coroner's inquest are permitted to ask witnesses questions. Jurors did not ask any questions of the six witnesses. The jury deliberated for about 10 minutes before delivering a verdict that the death was a justifiable homicide, that Zidack did not commit a crime and that the death was a suicide through law enforcement intervention.
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