Pod Insights Park Predators The Tracker About this episode When a botched home invasion leads law enforcement to pursue two dangerous men into the Idaho wilderness, the fallout is fatal for the one forest service officer who dared to face the fugitives head-on.
Transcript 0:00 Speaker 00 Hi, park enthusiasts. I’m your host, Delia D'Ambra. And the case I’m going to tell you about today doesn’t technically take place within the bounds of a national or state park. But if you were to look at it from a bird’s eye view, it’s the closest thing to it. I’m talking about Bonner County, Idaho, which sits extremely close to the U.S.-Canada border. There’s an abundance of animals in this region, including birds of prey, pheasants, and swans. Some rather frightening species of wildlife that roam this terrain include coyotes, mountain lions, black bears, and even grizzly bears. But on a cold January day in 1989, it wasn’t apex predators that residents were worried about.
0:42 Speaker 00 It was two armed men, on the loose, in the forest, who were responsible for an act of bloodshed that marked one of the most notorious crimes in northern Idaho’s history. The devastating impact their actions had on families from this area is as real today as it was 36 years ago. But something else that’s been memorialized forever is the legacy and sacrifice of the one law enforcement officer who dared to stand in their way. This is Park Predators.
1:55 Speaker 00 Around 6:30 PM on Wednesday, January 11, 1989, a woman named Tammy Pollenick was relaxing with her family inside her mother’s house near the small town of Sagel, Idaho. In total, there were nine people in the home: Tammy, who was pregnant, her husband Mark, her brother, her brother’s wife, and a few teenagers and kids. Because the house was large and had several stories, it was the perfect place for the group to vacation together while simultaneously acting as house sitters for Tammy's mother, Lee, who happened to be out of town in California. As everyone was settling in for the evening, most of the kids stayed on the entry-level floor of the home, which had some bedrooms, and I think the living room,
2:38 Speaker 00 while Tammy and the other adults hung out on the lower level. Sometime shortly after 6:30 PM, though, she and her husband Mark heard a noticeable thud come from upstairs. So they decided to check things out, and I imagine just make sure the kids were OK. But when Mark rounded the corner at the top of the staircase that led to the upper level, a man wearing all black confronted him and struck him in the head with the butt of a gun, then said, quote, "Hey dude, this is for real," end quote. Right after hitting Mark, the masked man forced the adults upstairs, and it became clear to everyone that there was another assailant in the house helping to corral the family members into the living room. The victims were all directed to lay down on their stomachs
3:23 Speaker 00 and then bound with duct tape to ensure they couldn't escape or fight back. While all of that was going on, the two suspects repeatedly threatened to kill the victims and demanded to know where the home's safe was located. Tammy desperately tried to explain to the attackers that there was no safe in her mom's house. But the masked men didn't believe her. She later told producers for Oxygen's episode of Killer Siblings titled Pratt that at one point in time, her mom had kept a safe on the premises because she'd operated a business and usually stored some funds at home, but that was no longer the case. So for several hours, the suspects just went round and round, making threats and demands and essentially terrorizing Tammy and her family.
4:08 Speaker 00 The intruders gathered a gun from the home and a small amount of cash, but they seemingly didn't want any jewelry or other valuables. Eventually, around 9:30 PM, one of Tammy's nieces was able to crawl out of the living room undetected and dialed 911. The nearest law enforcement agency that first received that call was the city of Sandpoint Police Department. Sandpoint seems to be the nearest larger city to where Tammy and her family were staying, which makes sense why the call was routed to them. And shortly after learning about the burglary in progress, Sandpoint PD looped in the Bonner County Sheriff's Office, who also sent deputies to the scene.
4:47 Speaker 00 When units arrived, they could see that lights were on inside Tammy's mom's house and people were moving around. So a few members of law enforcement walked around the back of the structure to get a better look, but within minutes of doing that, they heard gunshots go off inside. What authorities didn't know was that those shots were a result of a tussle that had broken out between the masked men and Tammy's husband, Mark. According to that episode of Killer Siblings I mentioned a minute ago, once it became clear that police and the sheriff's office were outside and closing in on the house, the suspects holding the family hostage had become very agitated and kind of started to panic. In fact, one of them decided to take Tammy's niece's 19-year-old boyfriend as a hostage and go outside.
5:31 Speaker 00 But Tammy's husband didn't want that to happen, so he jumped into action. He broke free from his bindings and charged one of the masked men. But unfortunately, his effort failed, and he wound up getting shot in the forehead and leg. By some miracle, though, he still was conscious and able to talk and move. Right after that, the two masked men bolted out of the house with their teenage hostage in tow. Meanwhile, back outside, members of law enforcement saw them emerge from the house and make their way onto a porch landing. Authorities ordered them to stop, but one of the men hollered that if officers didn't back off, he would kill the hostage. Not wanting things to escalate even more, the sheriff's office and police department
6:14 Speaker 00 pulled back their personnel and basically just had to watch as the robbers walked down an outside staircase and disappeared into a nearby tree line. Shortly after that, Tammy and her brother ran out of their mom's place and made their way to authorities. They explained that Mark had been shot and needed medical attention, but other than that, everyone else in the house was okay. After getting Mark medical care and determining that he was going to survive, authorities gathered statements from Tammy and the other survivors of the home. They also cleared the house to make sure no one else was still inside. Then they turned their attention to finding the suspects who'd taken off into the woods. But just as they were doing that, the young man who'd been taken hostage materialized
6:57 Speaker 00 from the tree line and sprinted across the home's lawn to join his girlfriend's family. He told authorities that the two men who'd taken him at gunpoint had decided at the last minute to let him go. He described how his captors had dragged him through the trees and across a nearby roadway called Lignite Road. Then they'd made a beeline to a gold-colored vehicle before one of them abruptly ordered the other to release him. After that, the teenager said the masked men got into their car and took off, headed south. Now, at that point, other members of law enforcement had become aware of the unfolding situation and were on alert. By sheer coincidence, a detective for Bonner County, who was just a few miles away from
7:38 Speaker 00 the crime scene, saw a gold Chevrolet Monte Carlo speed past him headed in the opposite direction. This detective had heard the description of the alleged suspect's vehicle come over his radio, and surmised that the drivers of the gold car that had just passed him were likely involved in the home invasion. So he whipped his cruiser around and started pursuing the Monte Carlo. He chased the vehicle north in the direction of the city of Sandpoint, and waiting to intercept the car there was a group of city police officers. But the driver of the Monte Carlo avoided that roadblock and took a hard left on a roadway called Lake Shore Drive, which happened to be slick and covered with snow at the time.
8:19 Speaker 00 Despite treacherous conditions for a car chase, the detective who was pursuing the gold car didn't fall back. Well, that is until someone sitting in the passenger seat of the Chevy leaned out and shot several times into the detective's windshield. That was the point when the detective figured enough was enough, and he pulled back. The gold car then sped out of sight, and thankfully, the detective wasn't injured, but his front windshield was toast. From that point, it was up to his colleagues to find the gold car and its occupants. Around 10:00 PM, even more officers and deputies got involved in the manhunt, and teams eventually found the suspect's vehicle wrecked into a snowbank. It was on the left-hand side of the roadway it was last seen on.
9:02 Speaker 00 No one was inside, but several rounds of ammunition, magazines, and firearms were in the trunk. The caliber of the abandoned ammo indicated that the suspects were armed with pistols and at least one shotgun. In the snow, trailing away from the car were shoe prints that led investigators over a snowbank and further into the woods. Before setting off to follow the prints, the sheriff's office looked up the Monte Carlo's license plate information and discovered that it was registered to a local resident named Joseph Pratt. Some deputies who worked for the sheriff's office at the time recognized Joseph's name because he'd been living in Sandpoint. They also knew he had a brother named James Pratt, who'd been seen around town from time to time.
9:45 Speaker 00 Joseph was 27 years old and James was 29. Armed with this information, investigators with the city and county agencies, as well as the US Forest Service and Idaho Department of Fish and Game, followed the foot tracks that they believed the Pratt brothers had left in the snow. One set of tracks had been made by a boot, but the other appeared to have come from a running shoe, which investigators knew wasn't really appropriate footwear for walking in the snow. The manhunt stretched for one hour, to two, then three, and eventually more than four hours because the terrain that searchers were having to cover was fairly unforgiving. Authorities were reportedly wading through knee-deep and waist-deep snow, thick forest,
10:30 Speaker 00 and just all-around miserable conditions. Around 2 o'clock in the morning, which would have technically been Thursday, January 12, more resources and personnel were brought in to assist in the search. Law enforcement was growing increasingly worried that the Prats would go near several vacation cabins in the area while attempting to cross the nearby Ponderay River. Interestingly, during the search, the sheriff's office as an agency didn't have tracking dogs as a resource, so it was totally up to the men and women on foot to track the suspect's movements and direction. At one point, authorities saw where the two brothers had walked close to a few rental cottages, so to be sure they weren't hiding inside one of them, investigators went through each building individually.
11:14 Speaker 00 They quickly determined the Prats weren't there and picked up their trail again, which led back into the woods.
11:21 Speaker 00 Around 2:24 a.m., the manhunt teams realized that the suspects' tracks had gone over a suspended railroad bridge that went across a small lake. But getting across this bridge wasn't going to be easy for searchers, because the railroad ties were slippery and covered in ice. Not to mention, law enforcement were kind of sitting ducks while they attempted the feed. They had no idea if the Pratt's were hiding on the other side, waiting to pick them off one by one, or what. It was a pretty frightening reality, but eventually, the search teams did make it over safely and continued tracking their targets. About two hours later, around 4 a.m., the crews who'd been following the brothers' trail all night were worn out and needed a break. So the investigating agencies made the collective decision
12:05 Speaker 00 to pause the manhunt until fresh personnel arrived around 6 a.m. One of the first teams that launched the renewed search consisted of four men, and included a 41-year-old Forest Service officer named Brent Jacobson, who sometimes went by the nickname Jake. Brent was a former Navy SEAL who had a thorough knowledge of the landscape in northern Idaho. He was from Provo, Utah, but had lived a good portion of his life in Twin Falls. As a young man, he became very familiar with creeks and canyons in that area. Around 1966, after finishing his time in the Navy, he worked for the U.S. Forest Service as a part-time firefighter. When he went full-time for that agency in 1974,
12:48 Speaker 00 he was stationed in Cooteny County, Idaho, before eventually transferring to the Sandpoint Ranger District in 1985. Because of all of that experience, he was heralded as a very skilled hunter, outdoorsman, and tracker. At the time, he was employed as both a fire control officer and law enforcement officer with the U.S. Forest Service. For a few hours, Brent and his team tracked the Pratt brothers through the snow and eventually came across a roadway. It was clear that the assailants had tried to throw law enforcement off the scent a few times by attempting to walk in one another's shoe tracks. But their efforts didn't deter Brent. He followed their trail for some 200 yards. By 5 o'clock, authorities had cornered the two suspects
13:33 Speaker 00 in a small stretch of woods near a street named Smith Creek Road. The spot was about eight miles west of the city of Sandpoint. The location was uniquely isolated, so there was nowhere for the Pratt brothers to run. Around 5:15 PM, Brent and a 24-year-old Bonner County deputy accompanying him, named Steve Barbieri, walked towards the general area they believed the suspects were hiding, but were suddenly attacked with a volley of gunfire as they entered a heavily wooded ravine. The moment was chaotic and visibility was poor, not to mention there was little to no radio reception between officers because of how remote the terrain was. So it was hard to tell who was where or where the shots were even coming from.
14:18 Speaker 00 As soon as the gunfire stopped, though, another sheriff's deputy on Brent's team, who was further back, heard what he thought sounded like a person gasping for air or moaning. Basically, it's what he described as someone's dying breaths. Then Brent's partner, Steve Barbieri, emerged from the woods and told the rest of the team that Brent had been shot. Steve explained how he and Brent had unknowingly gotten fairly close to the Pratt brothers, who were dressed in black and hiding below a pine tree. They'd ordered the suspects to show their hands, but the men didn't. Instead, the brothers blasted the officers and Brent had gone down almost immediately. Steve said he'd been able to fire off a few rounds from his shotgun at some point while
15:02 Speaker 00 diving for cover, and then switched to a handgun, but that gun had jammed, making it impossible for him to continue to return fire. He said that in the scurry, he and Brent had gotten separated, and eventually he had to retreat to avoid getting shot, too. So by 5:20 PM, it was clear to everyone involved in the manhunt that Brent was down somewhere in the forest and needed medical attention. But authorities had to use caution because it wasn't clear right away whether the two suspects were still in the area. Eventually, though, Brent's colleagues determined that the Prats had fled, and so they had to make the tough decision to try and find them before going to check on Brent.
15:44 Speaker 00 About 40 minutes after this, authorities got a call from a man named Max Singleton, who lived at a house near the shooting scene. And Max, who was home with his two sons at the time, told investigators that Joseph and James Pratt were at his place and wanted to surrender. Not long after that, a crisis response team arrived, and by 6:50 PM, the Pratt's were taken into custody without further incident. Finally, everyone could breathe a sigh of relief because the nearly 22-hour manhunt was over. Reporting by Pam Newbern for the Shoshone News Press, and an article in The Times News explained that it wasn't until the Pratt's were apprehended that law enforcement teams were able to return to the area where Brent had been shot and look for him.
16:29 Speaker 00 The reality when they finally reached him, though, was grim.
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17:44 Speaker 01 You know that thing where you're scrolling the internet and suddenly you're three hours deep into a celebrity lawsuit?
17:49 Speaker 02 Where you hear a courtroom term and think, wait, what does that actually mean?
17:53 Speaker 01 I'm Eliza Orlands, career public defender.
17:55 Speaker 02 And I'm Taya Johnson, law professor and legal analyst.
17:58 Speaker 01 And on our brand new podcast, Criminally Online, we break down the law behind the stories you can't stop talking about.
18:05 Speaker 02 No legal degree required, just curiosity. Find Criminally Online wherever you get your podcasts.
18:19 Speaker 00 When Brent's team members found him, he was lying face up in the snow, dead. His 223 Ruger rifle was sitting across the left side of his body, and holstered to his side was a Smith & Wesson revolver. He was still donning his camouflage snowsuit and bulletproof vest. He'd been shot in his thigh and back by a 12-gauge shotgun. A round had entered just beneath his bulletproof vest. Based on the severity of his injuries, it was assumed that he'd bled out within minutes of being shot. It wasn't immediately clear if he'd gotten the chance to fire his weapon at the suspects before he was gunned down, though some source material later reported that he had actually been able to discharge at least two rounds before falling to the ground.
19:03 Speaker 00 Those shots, though, were not believed to have struck anyone. His team members then removed his body from the woods and transported him to a forensic pathologist in Spokane, Washington, for a formal autopsy, which was scheduled for the following day. Later that evening, investigators visited his wife Barbara, 17-year-old stepson Joseph, and 13-year-old stepdaughter Angela at the family's home in Sagel. They had to deliver the tragic news. Angela told producers for Oxygen that when her mother found out what happened, she literally crumbled to the floor with grief. Angela said that even though Brent, who she referred to by the nickname Jake, wasn't her biological father, she'd grown up with him most of her life, and in so many ways,
19:47 Speaker 00 he was a dad to her. She explained that losing him devastated everyone in her family. At the time of the crime, Barbara, who'd been married to Brent for nearly a decade, told The Times News that her husband genuinely loved being outside, and he'd always told her that if he were to die, he wanted it to happen in the woods. Additional news coverage states that Brent was the first US Forest Service employee to be killed in the line of duty up until that point. So it was a really big deal. His manager and other coworkers with the Forest Service told The Times News and Shoshone News Press that Brent was liked and respected by all of his colleagues.
20:28 Speaker 00 He was also a dedicated family man who often spoke about his wife and stepchildren, even in settings that were, for lack of better phrasing, mostly brofests. His brother-in-law told reporters that the whole reason Brent became a Forest Service officer was because he loved the outdoors so much and was dedicated to protecting it. In the shootout, James Pratt had been shot too, in his left leg. So immediately following his capture, he was taken to Bonner General Hospital to undergo surgery and was expected to make a full recovery. Because Brent had died as a result of the brothers' actions, both of them were charged with individual counts of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, second-degree
21:09 Speaker 00 kidnapping, first-degree burglary, aggravated assault, aggravated assault on a police officer, and robbery. After their arraignments, they were held without bail. Neither man agreed to speak with law enforcement after the incident, which was unfortunate because what everyone wanted to know was why? Why had they done this? Turns out, the answer was fairly straightforward, but also kind of a wild tale. According to the available source material, the Pratt brothers were originally from Michigan and had experienced poverty. Their father and mother divorced when they were kids, and after that, the brothers moved frequently with their dad. Of the two of them, James was reportedly the more confident brother, who was physically
21:54 Speaker 00 taller and, I think, just viewed as the leader of the pair. More than a decade before this crime, their dad had moved them to Idaho to mine gold and silver with the goal of getting rich. But that endeavor fizzled out with poor results after about five years. And when the brothers were in their late teens and early twenties, their father decided to leave Idaho entirely, but James and Joseph continued living there.
22:18 Speaker 00 They found work at a cedar mill and Joseph even ended up getting married and starting a family of his own. By the time the year 1980 rolled around, though, both men had fallen on hard times financially. During that time, they struck up a friendship with a woman named Gloria White, who owned a large cabin in the Catka Mountain area of Idaho, which is about an hour and a half northeast of Sandpoint. Gloria had a tendency to befriend and shelter folks who had criminal pasts, or who needed to catch a break in life. The Pratt brothers fit the latter description, so at one point, they'd ask Gloria for a loan. But instead of providing them with cash, she introduced them to another guy who was staying at her house, named Jim.
23:01 Speaker 00 Jim, as it turns out, though, was not that guy's real name. His true identity was Christopher Boyce, who was, wait for it, the son of an FBI agent who was a convicted spy on the run from federal authorities. I know, this part of the story is wild, like I said. In 1977, Christopher was convicted of espionage for selling satellite technology secrets from the CIA to the Soviet Union. For that crime, he was sentenced to 40 years in a California federal prison, but escaped about three years later in 1980. During his short time behind bars, though, Christopher had picked up a few tips from other inmates on how to successfully rob banks.
23:44 Speaker 00 So when he escaped, he went straight to committing that kind of crime. Along the way, he met and enlisted James and Joseph and one of their other brothers named Kendall Pratt, to help him rob about six banks in Idaho, Washington, and Montana. According to news coverage and court documents, the Prats usually acted as Christopher's getaway driver. By 1981, though, the men's arrangement had soured because James had started to suspect that Christopher wasn't giving him and his brothers their fair share of the spoils from the bank robbery jobs. So infighting within the group resulted in a fallout between the Prats and Christopher, one that would eventually come back to bite Christopher big time.
24:27 Speaker 00 In the summer of 1981, fresh off the brother split with Christopher, James was reading some newspaper articles and learned that the US Marshals were offering a $15,000 reward for Christopher's capture. James and Joseph used that information to their advantage and became paid government informants, eventually leading investigators to Christopher. On August 21st, 1981, he was apprehended in Washington State. In an exchange for their cooperation, the Prats were given immunity from prosecution for the bank robberies, and at least one of them pocketed the reward money for helping the US Marshals catch Christopher. An article by Dan Drury for the Bonner County Daily Bee also reported that in addition
25:10 Speaker 00 to raking in the reward money, the US Marshals also gave the Prats other payments or subsidies that equated to about $10,000, which would have been more like $25,000 back in the early 1980s when you consider inflation. And if all of this is starting to sound like the plot of a Hollywood movie, that's because it is. According to Dan Drury's reporting for the Bonner County Daily Bee, there was a feature film about Christopher Boyce's life and eventual capture that was released in 1985 called "The Falcon and the Snowman." It starred Sean Penn, Timothy Hutton, and Pat Hingle. An author named Robert Lindsay also wrote two books about the story titled "The Falcon
25:52 Speaker 00 and the Snowman" and "The Flight of the Falcon," which were released in the late 70s and early 80s. In those novels, it's clarified that in addition to Christopher being held responsible for his crimes, Gloria White, the woman who'd housed him in the Prats, was also eventually prosecuted and sentenced to five years in prison. An article I found by the Associated Press explained that Christopher Boyce was released from prison early in March 2003.
26:20 Speaker 00 But back to the Pratt's for a little bit. It's unclear from the source material what the brothers did with the reward money they received from ratting on Christopher, or how long those funds lasted them. There's just not enough coverage out there about what they were up to between 1982 and 1989. But what I can tell you is that Tammy Polynick told producers for Oxygen's Killer Siblings episode that at some point Joseph had worked for her mother, Lee. He wasn't exactly a full-time employee or anything, more like a handyman. But apparently during his time on Lee's property, he'd come to suspect that she kept money in a safe at her house. In fact, Joseph later told reporter Kelly McBride that he suspected Lee kept money
27:04 Speaker 00 from her restaurant and nightclub businesses at her house. And he actually believes she still owed him like $500 or something in back wages. So that's why when he and James came back to Sandpoint on January 11th, 1989, after visiting with one of their brothers in Montana, he'd gotten the impulsive idea to rob Lee's house. So in hindsight, it made total sense why the brothers had been so insistent during the home invasion that there was a safe in the house. However, like I mentioned earlier, they didn't know what Tammy knew, which was that her mom no longer kept one in the home. So I think that indicates there had to have been at least a few months or possibly years between when Joseph had last been on Lee's property and when he and James committed
27:48 Speaker 00 the home invasion. Anyway, after the brothers' initial appearances in court, the Bonner County prosecutor announced that he intended to seek the death penalty against them for Brent's murder. It was also at this point in the investigation that the FBI and US Marshals were contacted about the case since Brent was technically a federal employee. Though the source material doesn't explicitly state this, I also think another reason why these bigger agencies were requested to be involved was to help the Bonner County Sheriff's Department review their agency's actions and everything that had transpired during the manhunt. You see, in the aftermath of the chase, Brent's death, and the Pratt brothers' eventual arrests, Bonner County Sheriff admitted that the situation could have been handled better
28:32 Speaker 00 in terms of planning and execution. The Associated Press reported that the sheriff said the incident was all around a very difficult response to coordinate because of the terrain it took place in, but he agreed law enforcement's actions and tactics should be critiqued, at least as a learning moment. For example, the agency wanted to examine every aspect of Deputy Steve Barbieri’s response, since he was the only other law enforcement officer who’d physically been with Brent when the shootout happened. Through a series of experiments, the sheriff’s office tried to figure out why Steve’s handgun had allegedly jammed when he said he’d tried to fire it at the Pratt’s. Did the cold weather have something to do with it? Was it Steve panicking? Was the firearm just defective?
29:16 Speaker 00 The best conclusion the department could come to was that the gun had not malfunctioned due to the cold, but rather Steve, who was wearing very thick gloves during the shootout, had accidentally gripped the trigger guard of the handgun instead of actually pulling the trigger. There was also a question of how many shots had been fired between the Pratt’s and law enforcement. Some personnel who were stationed near the crime scene and were assisting Steve and Brent said they heard what they described as a volley of gunshots exchanged in the woods. Upwards of 20 rounds, actually. Now, that was an interesting detail, because it indicated that the shootout had spanned for perhaps longer than initially estimated, or at least involved a lot more firepower than what struck Brent.
30:00 Speaker 00 One of Bonner County’s sheriff’s deputies later stated in court that it almost sounded like the first couple shots were slower than the latter ones. However, towards the end, the blast got so fast, he didn’t think whoever was firing was a member of law enforcement, because it just didn’t seem like the kind of firing cadence an officer or deputy would do. Reading between the lines, I think maybe firing in such quick succession like that could be considered or perceived as careless, which typically trained law enforcement officers try not to do in situations like this. Anyway, on January 17th, while the shootout was still in the beginning stage of being reviewed, Brent’s friends and family, along with some 750 to 800 law enforcement officers,
30:42 Speaker 00 held a funeral and burial service for him in Sandpoint. They remembered him as a hero, a father, a hunter, a firefighter, a gardener, a baker, a dog lover, and a friend. The pastor who conducted the service read a statement about Brent that his coworkers drafted, which said, quote, “Brent was a man who was so full of life that he seemed to be nearly bursting at the seams with it. You worked harder around him because you were dragged along in his wake and did not want to be left behind.” End quote. Brent's mother also read a eulogy that explained how much he loved the outdoors, even as a child. She said that his whole life, he'd had this unbreakable bond with
31:23 Speaker 00 Mother Nature, and always revelled in the freedom of being outside amongst the trees, animals, and mountains. Brent's dad had this amazing summary of his late son when he described Brent as a quote, "Beautiful flower, flowers bloom, then they wilt, and then they die. We only have them for a short period of time, but at least we had a flower." End quote. The day after the funeral, Sandpoint City Council members passed a resolution to formally memorialise Brent's sacrifice as a law enforcement officer, and commend city police officers for their actions during the events that led up to his death. Around this time, though, some rumours began to surface that suggested perhaps Brent's
32:05 Speaker 00 death wasn't actually the direct result of Joseph and James's actions. Now, I know that may feel like kind of a whiplash moment for some of you, but it's a super interesting detail that I think is worth taking a closer look at.
32:24 Speaker 01 You know that thing where you're scrolling the internet and suddenly you're three hours deep into a celebrity lawsuit?
32:29 Speaker 02 Where you hear a courtroom term and think, wait, what does that actually mean?
32:33 Speaker 01 I'm Eliza Orlands, career public defender.
32:35 Speaker 02 And I'm Taya Johnson, law professor and legal analyst.
32:38 Speaker 01 And on our brand new podcast, Criminally Online, we break down the law behind the stories you can't stop talking about.
32:45 Speaker 02 No legal degree required, just curiosity. Find Criminally Online wherever you get your podcasts.
32:59 Speaker 00 According to reporting by Pam Newbern, there had been some speculation following Brent's death that it might have been a member of law enforcement, possibly Steve Barbieri, who shot him. The sheriff of Bonner County at the time quickly tried to dispel those rumors, though, by telling reporters that such a scenario was impossible. According to the sheriff’s comments on the matter, he said that the ammunition that was retrieved from Brent’s body came from a double-ot buckshot round for a shotgun. But the ammo that law enforcement was using, specifically Steve Barbieri, was triple-ot buckshot, so a totally different diameter round. Now, Steve had also fired a 9mm handgun during the shootout, but that gun was not determined
33:42 Speaker 00 to have been what killed Brent, so all good there. The coroner of Bonner County confirmed the same thing. He said that there was no way Steve or any of the other first responders on scene were responsible for Brent’s death. In fact, a Remington 12-gauge shotgun that authorities had seized from the Pratt Brothers was the only firearm in the mix that was reportedly loaded with double-ot buckshot. Also around this same time, the Pratt Brothers’ old friend-turned-enemy, Christopher Boyce, spoke to the press from prison via his lawyer, and said that he was convinced Brent Jacobson would have lived if his former accomplices had not been given immunity for their testimony against him, which, like, he’s not wrong.
34:24 Speaker 00 It is a fact that if James and Joseph had been put in prison for their roles in the bank robberies that involved Christopher, they likely would have never crossed paths with Brent. Christopher issued this response about the situation via his lawyer, quote, “If the charges are true, it is quite unfortunate the immunity given the Pratt Brothers in exchange for exaggerated and unreliable testimony against me now appears to have facilitated the unnecessary death of a law enforcement officer.” End quote. Another defense lawyer, who’d represented Gloria White, that woman who was convicted for aiding Christopher, told the Spokesman Review that during her trial, he tried to convince jurors that the Prats couldn’t be trusted and were what the lawyer described
35:08 Speaker 00 as vicious people who should have never been given immunity from prosecution back in the early 1980s. But we know that federal authorities didn’t really take that sentiment to heart back in the day, which is why the Prats were roaming free when they carried out their crime spree in 1989.
35:26 Speaker 00 Kelly McBride reported for the Spokesman Review that James and Joseph claimed that law enforcement officers who chased them after the home invasion in Sagal were well aware of their former association with Christopher Boyce. The duo claimed that police and the sheriff's deputies in the home invasion incident were motivated to catch them, dead or alive, simply because some members of Idaho law enforcement had held a grudge that both of them skirted punishment for their roles in the bank robbery cases. Joseph told McBride, quote, "Once they figured out who we were with our connections with the Boyce deal and all, they weren't going to bring us back alive. I think that because we've gotten away with everything we've ever done, the Boyce thing and all, they wanted to really burn us. Our past, they don't like that at all.
36:11 Speaker 00 This is a mess. It's just a mess. It just got out of control. No one was supposed to be hurt." End quote.
36:20 Speaker 00 In that same jailhouse interview, James told the newspaper that neither he nor his brother expected a bunch of people to be at Lee Turner's house on January 12, 1989, especially kids. He claimed that the moment they realized children were inside, they considered bailing on the robbery because they didn't want it to turn into a hostage situation. But one thing led to another and things just escalated from there. James also explained that it was never his or his brother's intention to injure or kill the first deputy who'd pursued them at the start of the car chase. He said he'd tried to aim for the radiator of that deputy's car just to disable the vehicle so he'd stop pursuing them. But instead, he'd shot higher than he intended to and the blast pierced through the deputy's windshield.
37:04 Speaker 00 He claimed that the entire time he and Joseph were on the run, they genuinely were afraid that if they stopped fleeing, members of law enforcement would kill them. Eventually, after nearly a day of being pursued, they got so tired they had to stop to sleep. James said that's when Brent Jacobson and Steve Barbieri found them. James claimed it was one of the lawmen who'd shot first, not him or his brother. And it was a bullet from that first volley that had wounded him in the leg. As a reaction to that shot, he'd fired back. But he said he had no idea he'd actually fatally wounded Brent. James admitted that he'd been armed with the caliber shotgun that killed Brett, but it was never his intention to do so.
37:46 Speaker 00 Regarding the pair's time on the run in the unforgiving woods, James told the newspaper that the longer the manhunt dragged on, the more he thought about dying. In late January 1989, just a few weeks after the crime, a four-day preliminary hearing was held in Bonner County, and the case took an interesting turn when James's court-appointed public defender informed the presiding judge that he could no longer represent his client because James refused to let him be his lawyer. This situation didn't make the judge happy, and she actually ended up tossing the attorney in jail for contempt of court and ordering him to pay a $100 fine. Joseph also wasn't a big fan of his court-appointed attorney, Bruce Green, because apparently
38:29 Speaker 00 both of the Prats wanted to wait until their family members in Colorado could arrange for them to hire private attorneys. So they'd asked the judge to postpone the preliminary hearing until that happened, but the judge was like, "No way," and refused to grant that request. So the end result of the antics at the preliminary hearing was that James's defense attorney spent a little bit of time in jail, and the hearing still happened. Some of the first witnesses to take the stand were the victims who'd survived the home invasion robbery. Some of their testimony was circumstantial, though, because apparently none of them, other than maybe that 19-year-old who the Prats had taken as a hostage, actually got a good look at their faces because they'd been dressed in all black and wore face masks.
39:13 Speaker 00 Mark Polynick testified, though, that he sort of ruffled one of the brothers' face coverings during the scuffle, which resulted in him getting shot, and he swore that the guy who he tussled with was Joseph Pratt. But even as confident as Mark was about that detail, it still wasn't a 100% positive ID. Also during the preliminary hearing, Steve Barbieri, Brent's companion in the woods during the shootout, testified that right before Brent was killed, he'd been walking in the snow about 3 to 5 feet behind the Forest Service officer when they emerged into a clearing. Steve said that out of the corner of his eye, he thought he noticed a person's silhouette about 10 to 15 feet away from him and Brent. And in that moment, Steve yelled for whoever it was to "hold it right there", with Brent then issuing his own warning,
39:58 Speaker 00 "Sheriff's office, don't move." However, Steve claimed that as soon as they spoke, a muzzle flash burst in their direction, and that seemingly when all hell broke loose. Steve testified that he'd unloaded all 7 rounds that were in his shotgun, then ran about 60 yards away from the suspects to take cover before arming himself with his pistol and trying to return more fire, which he was unsuccessful in doing. When the defense cross-examined Steve, the young deputy denied that he or Brent had shot their weapons first. In general, Steve described what happened as basically getting surprised by the defendants. In fact, at one point while he'd been retreating, he'd found a place to lay down and forced himself to stay very still because he didn't want the suspects
40:43 Speaker 00 to get a second chance at getting the jump on him. He testified that he genuinely believed Brent was going to be all right and make it out of the situation. He didn't realize until a while after he'd retreated that the 41-year-old had been fatally injured.
40:58 Speaker 00 Evidence the prosecution presented to the court included a videotape of the crime scene and Brent's body, as well as nearly 150 items of other evidence collected in the case. By the end of the preliminary hearing, the judge ordered that each of the Prats would stand trial for their alleged crimes, and she even heaped on some additional charges. According to an article in the Coeur d'Alene Press, the brothers now faced first-degree burglary, 10 counts of aggravated assault, robbery, second-degree kidnapping, aggravated battery, aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, 2 counts of attempted first-degree murder, and first-degree murder, bringing their charges to a grand total of 18 felonies each. So yeah, a lot, a lot.
41:43 Speaker 00 At their arraignment on February 7, 1989, James and Joseph both entered not guilty pleas, and their trial was scheduled for early May 1989. It was expected to last four weeks and cost Bonner County close to $250,000. A few weeks into things, though, the men's cases were severed, with James's trial scheduled for May and Joseph's pushed to June. Something else interesting was that James's court-appointed attorney, the same one who'd been jailed previously for contempt, got into another spat of sorts with the court when he filed a motion to have a new judge who'd been appointed to the case disqualified from overseeing the trial. One judge prior to that judge had already been disqualified per request from Joseph's attorney, Bruce Green.
42:28 Speaker 00 So to say things between the defense, the prosecution, and the court itself were growing tense is a bit of an understatement. But the defense's whole strategy in doing this was to keep the brothers' trials separate. The state wanted the cases consolidated, but the defendants didn't. The defense attorneys wanted James and Joseph to each have their own day in court with their own judge and jury. And that's exactly what ended up being granted for the time being.
42:59 Speaker 01 You know that thing where you're scrolling the internet and suddenly you're three hours deep into a celebrity lawsuit?
43:05 Speaker 02 Where you hear a courtroom term and think, wait, what does that actually mean?
43:08 Speaker 01 I'm Eliza Orlands, career public defender.
43:11 Speaker 02 And I'm Taya Johnson, law professor and legal analyst.
43:14 Speaker 01 And on our brand-new podcast, Criminally Online, we break down the law behind the stories you can't stop talking about.
43:20 Speaker 02 No legal degree required, just curiosity. Find Criminally Online wherever you get your podcasts.
43:33 Speaker 00 In another unprecedented twist, James and his attorney requested that he be allowed to visit the location in the woods where Brent Jacobson died because he wanted to be, quote, "Chained or otherwise secured to a tree or other appropriate fixed object within the shooting site. And all law enforcement officers at the shooting site shall withdraw beyond hearing distance from the location where defendant is so secured, in order that defendant may privately confer with his attorney and the attorney's assistants at said location," end quote.
44:05 Speaker 00 But even as wild as that request was, the judge and prosecution ended up agreeing to it. Also at that point, it was decided that the trials would be moved to Cooteny County, Idaho, because Bonner County had become too saturated with information about the case to produce an impartial jury. Between April and May 1989, several additional motions were filed and argued in court, which resulted in Joseph and James's cases being unsevered, meaning they would proceed to trial at the same time with the same jury and judge. And the attempted murder charge for the brothers' attack on Mark Polynick also got dismissed. By that point, I don't think the defense was as concerned about those issues as much anymore. Instead, James's attorney seemed to turn his attention to suppressing statements that
44:50 Speaker 00 he'd made in that jailhouse interview with Spokesman Review reporter Kelly McBride. James's attorney also asked the court not to show Brent's autopsy videotape or photos to jurors, or display any of the bloodstained clothing he or Joseph had been wearing on the evening of the crime. But those requests were later denied.
45:11 Speaker 00 A detail I found kind of interesting while researching this case involved Max Singleton, the guy whose house the Pratt's ultimately surrendered at. Turns out, Max had previously been arrested for what authorities described as a major cocaine and marijuana trafficking organization not long before this whole situation went down. He was actually on house arrest when the Pratt's showed up. Now, I think it's only natural to wonder why, out of all the homes the Pratt brothers could have fled to, they ended up at Max's. Authorities told the press that they didn't think there was any connection between Max and the brothers, with one official saying that James and Joseph simply arrived at Max's house because they were looking for any place to flee to.
45:53 Speaker 00 Max confirmed this for reporter Pam Newbern, when he told her that he didn't know either of the Pratt brothers prior to this incident. He explained that when they showed up at his doorstep late at night on January 12th, they asked if he would give them a ride out of the area, which he declined to do. After that, they wanted Max to let them inside so they could get warm, and he agreed to do that, but only if they left their guns outside on a windowsill, which they did. After that, Max said he spent about a half hour or so talking to the brothers and encouraging them to turn themselves in to investigators. Max was called to testify for the prosecution during the defendant's preliminary hearing, but it seems like he only agreed to do that in exchange for some potential leniency when it came to his pending federal drug case.
46:38 Speaker 00 But I'm not sure how great of a deal he got for his cooperation in the Pratt case, because Thomas Skeen later reported for the Shoshone news press that Max eventually pleaded guilty to being the head of a drug ring that operated in northern Idaho and was subsequently sentenced to 10 years in a federal prison. Anyway, on May 19, 1989, the Pratt's trial finally got underway. The defense attorneys argued kind of two things. One, that their clients were claiming self-defense in Brent's death. And two, it was important for jurors to realize that the shootout and home invasion were separate crimes. The crux of that defense strategy was to try and convince jurors that the end of the
47:19 Speaker 00 manhunt occurred almost an entire day after the home invasion, and their clients had perhaps not exercised the best judgment after being on the run for so long. The defense emphasized the notion that it was Brent, or more likely Steve Barbieri, who'd fired first, not James. But the prosecution disagreed with that version of events. The state insisted that it was James who'd fired first, and that it was his 12-gauge shotgun that had accidentally caused the wound to his own leg, not an initial round fired by the lawman. Still, Joseph and James Pratt testified in their own defense on the stand that it was the other way around. The closest version of the truth about what really happened in the woods that evening
48:01 Speaker 00 came out when a criminologist called by the defense testified about how many total shots had been fired, and, equally as important, whose firearms those projectiles had come from. This defense expert explained that at least 32 rounds had been discharged during the incident, which included at least 10 shots from Brent's gun, which was seemingly brand-new information no one in the public had really known definitively prior to this. The criminologist's findings were a matter of contention, though, because the defense viewed his conclusions as proof that Deputy Steve Barbieri had been the initial shooter. But the state contended that was not what the expert's findings showed. When the case went to the jury on the evening of June 7th,
48:44 Speaker 00 they deliberated for about 17 hours before finding both brothers guilty. Pam Newbern reported that James was convicted of 15 felonies, including Brent's murder, and Joseph was found guilty of 16 felonies, which also included murder. Some of Brent's family members reacted to the news how you might expect, satisfied. Barbara, Brent's widow, wrote a letter to the Bonner County Bee newspaper after the verdict was read, which stated that she was happy with the verdict and performance of the prosecutor. She expressed that, in her opinion, her husband's killers had ample opportunities to stop their rampage before Brent was killed, but they didn't. She wrote, quote, "Every time they had a chance, they had an option.
49:29 Speaker 00 They always chose the brutal force option," end quote. Barbara went on to explain that she refused to let what happened destroy her life or make her crumble.
49:41 Speaker 00 The last time anyone had been executed in the state of Idaho was in 1957, decades before the Pratt's were convicted. So the journey to send one or both of them to death row was anticipated to be a potentially long and drawn-out one. The linchpin of why they qualified for such a harsh sentence had to do with the fact that Brent had technically been on duty as a peace officer when he was murdered. So that was considered an aggravating factor, which, if affirmed by the court, is what would trigger someone to be eligible for capital punishment. In late November 1989, less than a year after the crime, the judge who oversaw the trial sentenced Joseph to a minimum of 110 years, so life in prison.
50:24 Speaker 00 And James was sentenced to death, plus 85 years. Brent's wife told the press that she was good with the outcome of the sentencing, and several of the survivors of the home invasion shared the same sentiment. Mark Polynick told reporter Mike McLean that he would be satisfied with the judge's decision so long as the Pratt brothers never got out of prison. Both men appealed their convictions and sentences in January 1990, with James specifically fighting to have his punishment commuted to life in prison. But by 1991, those efforts failed. James then asked for a new trial, but that request was also denied. He appealed again in 1993 and successfully got his death sentence vacated,
51:06 Speaker 00 which resulted in him being resentenced to life in prison. As you can imagine, that did not sit well with Brent Jacobson's loved ones, including his wife and adult siblings, who felt the court's decision was wrong. Joseph Pratt also applied for post-conviction relief in 2000 and again in 2009, but was denied both times. Fast forward a little more than a decade, though, to April 2021, and things had changed yet again. This time in a way few people saw coming. That year, Idaho's Commission of Parole and Pardons decided to grant the brothers early release. At the time, James was 61 years old and Joseph was 59.
51:47 Speaker 00 In total, they'd only served 32 years of their life sentences. Angela, Brent's stepdaughter, told producers for Oxygen that the brothers being allowed to leave prison early was incredibly unfair to her and her family. She said, quote, "We have a permanent sentence of not having Jake in our lives forever," end quote. In the wake of Brent's murder, a scholarship was created at the University of Idaho in his name, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture posthumously honored him with a service award for his heroic actions. Additionally, he was bestowed a Posthumous Medal of Honor Award in 2011, and a mountain southeast of Sandpoint is named in his memory.
52:30 Speaker 00 The U.S. Forest Service also dedicated the Mineral Point Trail to him, and it's still around today. At his funeral back in 1989, Brent's mother shared a short poem from Theodora Krober that she believed appropriately embodied her son's legacy. It's a beautiful stitching of words that I want to leave you all with as I close out this episode. It reads, "When I am dead, cry for me a little. Think of me sometimes, but not too much. It is not good for you to allow your thoughts to dwell too long on the dead. Think of me now and again as I was in life, at some moment which is pleasant to recall, but not for long. Leave me in peace, as I shall leave you too in peace, while you live.
53:14 Speaker 00 Let your thoughts be with the living." Park Predators is an AudioChuck production. You can view a list of all the source material for this episode on our website, parkpredators.com. And you can also follow Park Predators on Instagram, @parkpredators. So, what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve?
53:46 Speaker 03 One day last year, detectives knocked on the door of a multimillion-dollar mansion in Los Angeles County. Inside, they found a strange scene. A dining area converted into classrooms with children and toddlers seated at rows of desks. The couple that lived there had 21 kids. It's a house that looks like a castle, but it's under investigation for being a possible factory, a baby factory. Where had these children come from? Almost all of them were born through surrogates. But those surrogates had been deceived. Me and my coworker, we named her the surrogate pimp. That's the one time that we called the cops because she was screaming. And then he pulled out a gun.
54:29 Speaker 02 I started crying. I was like, what the heck did I just get myself into?
54:34 Speaker 03 I'm Ava Kaufman. The Journey is a new series from In the Dark and The New Yorker. Find it now in the In the Dark feed, wherever you get your podcasts.
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