Several weeks after a threatening Snapchat video caused a shelter-in-place order at Belgrade schools, one of the people connected to the case Tuesday pleaded not guilty to felony charges.
Court documents show 18-year-old David Oster from Belgrade said he was not home when his younger sister and three other minors used his semi-automatic pistol as a prop in the video.
When Gallatin County sheriff’s deputies showed up to retrieve the gun, Oster initially said he had disposed of it in a far-off location. Then he showed the deputies where he had dropped the loaded gun into a portable toilet at a construction site across the street.
Oster said he was not attempting to dispose of evidence, rather he felt irresponsible with the storage of the gun. If convicted of tampering with evidence and lying to law enforcement, he could face up to ten years in prison.
A Gallatin County district judge released Oster without bail. The Bozeman Daily Chronicle reports Oster’s attorney asked the judge to let the 18-year-old go to a student visa interview in California with his mother in August. He was accepted into the Berklee College of Music in Spain.
The Chronicle reports the felony intimidation charges for the four minors are pending.
