Self-Defense in 2015 Shooting Death

The Gazette reports that prosecutors have declined to press charges in the shooting death of a Billings man in 2015, saying a jury would likely find the suspect’s self-defense claim credible. The decision not to file charges was outlined in a letter from Senior Deputy County Attorney Julie Patten and Deputy Chief County Attorney Ed Zink to Captain Jeremy House of the Billings Police Department. The letter, sent in October, was first obtained by KTVQ through an information request.

Nicholas Frandsen shot Shawn Allread multiple times in the head and torso in the early morning hours of Oct. 29, 2015, in an apartment on the 600 block of North 24th Street, near North Park. Patten and Zink laid out a series of factors in their decision not to charge Frandsen with deliberate homicide, primarily citing the evidence of self-defense.