A former Cody resident who’s accused of killing a motorcyclist and attempting to kill three others has been returned to Montana to face multiple felony charges.

Authorities allege that Michael J. Gambale, 47, intentionally drove his vehicle into a motorcyclist south of Belfry, Montana, on the afternoon of Sept. 24 — causing the death of a 70-year-old man and sending the man’s passenger to the hospital. According to investigators, just prior to that incident, Gambale had also tried crashing into two other cyclists near Rockvale, Montana, multiple times, hitting one man in the leg.

Gambale was arrested in Cody just hours after the incidents and initially held at the Park County Detention Center. At a Friday court hearing, however, he agreed to be sent back to Carbon County, Montana, where prosecutors have filed one count of deliberate homicide and three of attempted deliberate homicide.

“... I would like to waive extradition and return to Montana to face the charges immediately,” Gambale told Park County Circuit Court Judge Joey Darrah.

Gambale was picked up by Carbon County officials on Tuesday and made his first appearance in Carbon County District Court in Red Lodge on Wednesday. A judge has set his bail at $2 million, according to jail records.

At the time of the alleged incidents in Montana, Gambale was out on bond in Park County and prosecutors were trying to have him rearrested. Amid an apparent mental health crisis in November 2023, Gambale had fired crossbow bolts onto the Yellowstone Regional Airport runway. The veteran was released to probation and was supposed to enter treatment at the Sheridan VA last winter, but he never did, apparently moving to Billings instead.

Prosecutors sought to revoke Gambale’s probation in February, but he wasn’t arrested until last month. After hearing that Gambale had otherwise complied with the law during his time on probation, Judge Darrah rejected prosecutors’ request for a $50,000 cash bond and allowed Gambale to be released on a $125 bond on Sept. 20. However, Gambale soon began sending a set of bizarre and apparently delusional emails to media outlets and various government and church officials.

In one long, hard-to-follow message sent on the night of Sept. 22, he asserted that he’d been “tortured” in jail — including being “subjected to Satanic worship” and receiving mandatory medications from a “sorceress.” He also described himself as a “super saint,” saying it would be OK if people bowed to him.

The emails prompted Park County Prosecuting Attorney Bryan Skoric to ask Darrah on Sept. 24 to reconsider his ruling and raise bond to $100,000. The judge did so, though the fatal crash in Montana occurred before Gambale was arrested.

At Gambale’s Feb. 14 sentencing hearing related to the 2023 incident with the crossbow, his court-appointed defense attorney, Sam Krone, said Gambale would be entering treatment at the Sheridan VA; court records show he was expected to check in the following day.

Gambale indicated to the court he had no income and no home, but “I have a plan for it,” he said.

Judge Darrah decided to waive the standard fees and assessments for the misdemeanor count of reckless endangering, telling Gambale that, “I want you to get your treatment.”

“I think that’s important …,” Darrah said.

Krone mentioned that he’d been in “pretty much constant contact” with a staffer at the Sheridan VA.

“... She’s the one that coordinated a lot of this plan, and so I will ensure that those releases are signed off on, with her assistance,” Krone said.

On Feb. 20, however, that staff informed the county attorney’s office that, to her disappointment, Gambale had decided not to enter the treatment program. Since Gambale had been required to sign a release of information related to his prescriptions at the VA and to take his medications, prosecutors filed to revoke Gambale’s probation on Feb. 29.

When Gambale was finally arrested in Cody on Sept. 17, prosecutors asked that he be held on a $50,000 bond. Citing the defense’s representation that Gambale had stayed out of trouble — and arguably hadn’t even violated his bond — Darrah allowed him to post $125 and be released with a location-tracking ankle monitor. That monitor wound up helping law enforcement officers locate Gambale in Cody after the alleged crimes in Montana.

Gambale’s new, private defense attorney, Reeves White of Cody, argued in a filing last month and in court on Friday that his client hadn’t actually violated the terms of his probation.

“Treatment was not a condition of probation,” White noted. He also argued that the affidavit was unclear on whether Gambale had actually failed to sign the required releases from the VA.

Prosecutor Skoric, however, said it was clear Gambale didn’t sign the releases or take his required medications, “because he never went to the VA.”

After hearing arguments, Darrah called the state’s evidence “somewhat flimsy” and described the situation as “somewhat of a de minimis violation.”

For his part, Skoric disputed that the violation was unimportant, saying his office “thought it was very serious that Mr. Gambale was not on his medications.”

“… those medications were essential,” Skoric said.

Ultimately, Darrah reaffirmed that prosecutors had presented enough evidence to show probable cause and obtain the warrant. The judge’s ruling prompted Gambale to then admit he had indeed violated his probation.

Gambale testified that he left the jail in February with VA-prescribed medications “and then I did not take any other steps from there.”

However, he would not admit that he’d failed to sign the required release to the county attorney’s office. 

“I signed all paperwork required of me,” he said, prompting Skoric to at one point tell the court, “I’m confused as to what he’s admitting to.”

Gambale eventually offered that it was possible he might not have signed all the releases needed for full communication between the VA and county attorney’s office.

“I apologize,” he said. “I get a little confused with all the paperwork that the VA gives you.”

Darrah concluded that was enough of a factual basis and then resentenced Gambale to probation; Skoric had asked for no additional jail time so as not to interfere with the “much more egregious” charges in Montana.