Jacob Ely

A Powell man who was shot in the leg last week will likely need to recover in jail, as a judge has set his bond at $200,000.

Jacob P. Ely, 41, is alleged to have stalked and confronted his ex-girlfriend’s current boyfriend last week. The man shot Ely in the lower right leg early on the morning of June 23, after Ely allegedly followed the man home and came at him with a baseball bat.

Circuit Court Judge Joey Darrah had ordered Ely to stay away from the man and his ex-girlfriend back in April — and the judge reaffirmed that command in June, after prosecutors alleged that Ely had repeatedly contacted and threatened the couple via anonymous phone calls and text messages.

Following last week’s shooting, Ely was taken to a Billings hospital for treatment and later released. He was arrested in Lovell on Friday night, on a misdemeanor count of violating a protection order and a felony count of stalking.

At a Monday afternoon hearing in circuit court, Deputy Park County Prosecuting Attorney Larry Eichele asked that Ely’s bond be set at $100,000. Eichele cited “the serious nature of this allegation” and the fact that Ely had already been out on a $5,000 surety bond for allegedly violating the protection order months earlier.

For his part, Ely asked to be released again.

“I won’t be anywhere near any of the victims or anything involved. I’m over that whole thing,” he told the court. “I just need to get myself better.”

Ely said he hadn’t been allowed to take his medications in jail and had missed a scheduled follow-up appointment earlier in the day.

Ely also said needed to take care of his children, and “being in here is not helping that at all.”

“Please, your honor, just have some sympathy for me,” he said.

But Judge Darrah noted that Ely is now alleged to have violated the court’s orders a couple of times.

“I recall admonishing you and listening to you and hearing these things from you last time you were before me,” Darrah said.

The judge was referencing Ely’s June 14 appearance on similar charges of stalking and violating a protection order, which stem from the threatening calls and messages that he allegedly sent to the couple. At that hearing last month, Darrah had warned Ely that he needed to overcome “whatever impulses you may have.”

On Monday, Darrah opted to reject Eichele’s recommendation and instead set bond at $200,000 on the new charges tied to last week’s altercation and shooting.

“This is serious,” he said.

Prosecutors allege that, despite the order to stay away from his ex-girlfriend, Ely was somewhere near her home early on the morning of June 23. The woman’s boyfriend told authorities that when he left her residence in town and headed toward his own home in rural Powell, he saw Ely closely following in a silver Chrysler 300.

As the man neared his residence, he decided to pull over; Ely stopped and got out of his sedan, too, according to charging documents based on the man’s account.

Ely was allegedly armed with a baseball bat and the man with a pistol. After a brief physical altercation, the man said Ely began to swing the bat at him and he opened fire.

Ely fled the area while the man called 911 to report the shooting, right around 5 a.m., charging documents say. Ely was located at another residence at about 6 a.m. and then taken to the hospital.

Although Darrah set a high bond, he indicated that he’d be willing to grant Ely a furlough from jail to attend medical appointments as they arise.

“It’s important that you be able to do that,” the judge told the defendant.

A preliminary hearing is tentatively set for July 11.