A Powell man was shot in the leg early Sunday morning, after he allegedly stalked and confronted his ex-girlfriend’s current boyfriend.

Jacob P. Ely had previously been ordered to stay away from the couple, and he was already facing charges that allege he’d harassed them via threatening, anonymous text messages. Ely is facing two new criminal charges in connection with Sunday’s altercation.

As for the man who shot Ely, he has not been charged with any wrongdoing. He told investigators that he opened fire after Ely tried to hit him with a baseball bat.

Prosecutors obtained a warrant for Ely’s arrest on Tuesday, though it’s unclear when he might be taken into custody; as of Monday morning, Ely was still receiving medical care at a Billings hospital.

Whenever he’s arrested, Ely will face a misdemeanor count of violating a protection order — for allegedly being outside his ex’s Powell home early Sunday morning — and a felony count of stalking, for allegedly following the woman’s current boyfriend to his home.

The man told the Park County Sheriff’s Office that after leaving the woman’s home early Sunday, he saw Ely’s silver Chrysler 300 “following him at a very close distance.”

As the man neared his own home around Lane 6 and Road 6, “he decided to pull over on the side of the road in case there was a conflict,” Sheriff’s Deputy Tyler Morean recounted in an affidavit; the man reportedly explained that he didn’t want his children to see Ely was there.

Both men got out of their vehicles, according to the man’s account, with Ely armed with a baseball bat and the man armed with a Ruger SR1911 pistol.

The man said Ely grabbed onto his shirt and then, after being pushed off, started to take a swing with the bat. That, the man said, prompted him to shoot Ely in the lower right leg. He called 911 just before 5 a.m., while Ely fled the scene, the affidavit says. About an hour later, shortly before 6 a.m., another caller contacted dispatch to report Ely was at his home and had a bullet wound. Ely was taken by ambulance to Powell Valley Hospital and then on to Billings Clinic.

At the time of Sunday’s altercation, Ely was out on bond on charges that he harassed the man and his ex back in April. The woman had obtained a protection order that month for her, her boyfriend and her children, with Circuit Court Judge Joey Darrah prohibiting Ely from having any contact whatsoever with the individuals.

But roughly a week after obtaining a final protection order, Ely allegedly banged on the woman’s front door. Ely denied it and said he just was in the area visiting a friend, but Powell Police Officer Trevor Carpenter said that, based on where the friend lived, there was no reason for Ely to have walked near the woman’s house.

Ely’s ex and her boyfriend also received a slew of anonymous phone calls and text messages that demeaned the woman with insults and contained ominous warnings. Some were written as though they came from women or people other than Ely, but the couple told Carpenter that they suspected Ely had sent them with an app that hid his true number.

On April 19, someone sent a message to one of the woman’s friends, apparently expecting them to relay the message to the woman.

“Well, unfortunately this is where l get to step in and I don’t make threats, call names, follow you around. Nope thats amateurs,” the individual wrote. “I give what you all deserve and it's not going to be pretty ... You can turn this in or do whatever you want with it but the cops can’t save you I promise! So I’ll give you till the end of tonight for her to contact.”

In another text message thread on April 27, the writer threatened to use their key on the woman’s front door, called her names and said “wait to see what’s about to blast through your window.”

“Ignore my warnings make it much worse,” they wrote.

Carpenter said he found 33 random numbers, mostly from the Wyoming area code, had been used to contact the woman’s boyfriend. Other calls to the woman were placed from “unknown numbers,” the officer wrote.

Officer Jade Euan said she believes she caught Ely calling the woman from an unknown number on April 30, as the anonymous caller’s voice appeared to match Ely’s.

All told, Carpenter said there appeared to have been a “stalking behavior pattern” throughout the month of April.

The Park County Attorney’s Office charged Ely last month with a misdemeanor count of violating a protection order for allegedly contacting the woman’s boyfriend in late April and felony stalking, for allegedly surveilling the woman outside her workplace and residence and/or harassing her with messages. Those are the same charges he faces in the new case.

For his part, Ely briefly denied the allegations at his initial court appearance on June 14.

“I haven’t offended the protection order like they’re saying,” he said, before being cut off with a warning from Darrah about his right to remain silent.

Deputy Park County Prosecuting Attorney Laura Newton argued for a $5,000 cash only bond, saying the allegations represented “a significant threat.”

The judge allowed Ely to instead post a $5,000 surety bond, but only after giving him a warning.

“The person on the other end of that [protection order] is terrified,” Darrah said, referring to Ely’s ex, and he told the defendant that, “whatever impulses you may have, you’re going to have to figure out a way to overcome them.”

Ely was set to have a preliminary hearing in the earlier stalking case on Monday. He called into the hearing from his hospital room at Billings Clinic, but asked that it be delayed until he could visit with his defense attorney.