Billings, Montana Casinos Targeted in Recent Robberies, Masked Bandit Sought

Posted on: November 1, 2021, 09:55h. 

Last updated on: November 1, 2021, 01:58h.

Ed Silverstein Read More
Expertise: Crime, Legal, Tribal Gaming.

Police have yet to make an arrest in a casino robbery and attempted casino robbery in Billings, Montana late last week, according to local news reports. The robber fled with cash in one of the heists.

Billings, Montana Police
A Billings, Mont. police car, pictured above. Police are investigating two casino holdups. (Image: The Montana Standard)

One holdup took place on Friday afternoon at Bullwackers Lounge & Casino, according to KULR, a local TV station. A sole, masked bandit gave a note to a casino worker.

The employee read the note and handed over cash to the robber. The robber then fled. Police did not disclose how much money was stolen.

About 48 minutes earlier, possibly the same suspect tried to rob Lucky Lil’s Casino, also in Billings. The note said he had a gun and wanted money. But the employee refused to provide any cash. The suspect fled that casino, possibly driving away in a car.

The two gaming properties are believed to be about a half-mile away from each other.

Police said the suspect is in his 30s. He has an average build and has brown hair. He was wearing a white mask at the time of the holdups.

Early Montana Murder

In June, a Montana man who decapitated a winning casino player in 2017 was sentenced to 65 years in prison for deliberate homicide.

Donald Ray Cherry, 34, was given the prison sentence in the Yellowstone County Courthouse in Billings for the killing of Myron Wesley Knight. The death was connected to a robbery after the bandits met Knight at one of the Lil’s Casino locations in Montana.

Cherry and a second defendant, Jeffery Glen Haverty, 37, murdered Knight with a hatchet, police said. They also decapitated him while they were at a campsite near the casino, police claim.

Gruesome Scene

Knight’s headless body later was found on a dirt trail near the transient camp. After the decapitation, Cherry allegedly hid Knight’s remains. His head was found 30 feet away. It was wrapped in a towel under a pile of leaves.

A medical examiner said that Knight was probably still alive when they started cutting his head off. Cherry later admitted in court he and Haverty robbed and killed Knight.

The men were regulars at the casino. They knew each other before the fatal incident.

Knight had won $120 at the casino that day. But he soon gave the money to a gaming property employee for safekeeping. Knight only had $6 when he was killed by the duo, police revealed.

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