A Butte man convicted of tossing a crossbow into a dumpster after shooting an arrow into a man’s chest in 2020 faces new felony charges, including assault with a weapon and criminal endangerment, tied to two recent incidents.

In one new case, prosecutors accuse 32-year-old Joshua Michael Ott of brandishing a sawed-off shotgun at a woman on Aug. 27 and later that day, pushing her off a motorcycle, punching her in the head and stepping on her.

Joshua Michael Ott

Joshua Ott appears in District Court in Butte on Thursday.

 Mike Smith

He was charged with felony assault with a weapon and misdemeanor partner-family member assault and will be arraigned in that case on Oct. 18.

Prosecutors say a week after the shotgun incident, Ott was speeding on a motorcycle on Montana Street and led police on a high-speed chase that ended when he tipped the bike on a rural road off Highway 2.

He admitted stealing the motorcycle, prosecutors say, and was charged with felony theft, felony criminal endangerment, DUI and possession of drug paraphernalia.

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Ott pleaded not guilty to those charges Thursday and District Judge Kurt Krueger set the next hearing for Nov. 30. Ott was returned to jail after the arraignment with bond set at $25,000.

Ott faces up to 35 years in prison if convicted on all charges. And because of the new allegations, prosecutors also want six years of the suspended sentence Ott received in the crossbow incident revoked.

In that case, prosecutors initially charged Ott with attempted deliberate homicide and tampering with evidence.

They say Ott and another man were arguing in a house on Silver Bow Boulevard on Feb. 28, 2020, and Ott shot the man in the chest with a crossbow. The man was able to pull the arrow out and after some time at the ICU at St. James Healthcare, he recovered.

Ott said the man attacked him with an ax and he shot in self-defense. He tossed the crossbow in a dumpster and fled after the incident. He was later arrested in Missoula.

Prosecutors dropped the attempted homicide charge as part of a plea deal but Ott was sentenced to four years in custody of the Montana Department of Corrections on the tampering charge plus six more years suspended.

In the incident on Aug. 27, a woman says she and Ott got into an argument, and he retrieved a sawed-off shotgun from an RV near Browns Gulch Road and fired off a round.

She wasn’t sure if he fired in her direction, prosecutors say, but she ran and he caught up to her on a motorcycle and apologized. She got on the bike and he was taking her back to Butte when they disagreed about something.

Ott stopped the bike, she said, pushed her off and began punching her in the back of the head, then stepped on her. She escaped and ran down the road.

According to prosecutors, she said Ott “was driving on the road trying to catch her but she eventually lay in a ditch to hide” and called police.

Mike Smith is a reporter at the Montana Standard with an emphasis on government and politics.

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