Third arrest made in Hurst slaying
SANDPOINT — A third suspect implicated in the killing of Brandon Vern Hurst has been arrested.
Scott Thomas Kachel made an initial appearance in Bonner County Magistrate Court on Thursday via videoconferencing with the jail. He is charged with accessory to murder.
Judge Tera Harden sustained Kachel's $250,000 bail and appointed a public defender to represent him.
Kachel, 62, is accused of concealing the body of Hurst by dumping it down a steep embankment in the 1700 block of Caribou Creek Road on Nov. 21. Neal Aaron Mouser is charged with first-degree murder for shooting Hurst on that date and Cantrip Velite Gatens is charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder for allegedly recruiting Mouser to kill Hurst and luring him to a remote location where an armed Mouser laid in wait and shot him to death.
A criminal complaint in Gatens' case described the setup as an assassination. Gatens accused Hurst of hitting her over the head with a tire iron in Clark Fork on an earlier occasion and alleged that Hurst was a police informant, according to court documents.
Mouser, 59, was arrested Wednesday by U.S. Marshal's fugitive task force and is charged with first-degree murder. He remained held Thursday at the Spokane County Jail on a fugitive warrant, according to the facility's online roster.
Hurst's body was discovered by a man jogging with his son on Dec. 10. His body was wrapped in a camouflage tarp and placed in a utility sled commonly used to haul firewood or harvested big game. An autopsy concluded Hurst died of multiple gunshot wounds to his neck, torso and hands, court records indicate.
Hurst, 38, was lured to Caribou Creek Road by Gatens, who claimed her car had broken down. Hurst, according to court documents, was a former paramour of Gatens but an ongoing target of his affection.
An eyewitness told Bonner County sheriff's investigators that Mouser hid in the tree line and emerged when Hurst arrived at the location. Hurst was shot while sitting in his vehicle, according to a detective's affidavit. Hurst appeared to be alive when Gatens and the witness left the scene, court records indicate.
Hurst, however, appeared to be dead by the time the eyewitness returned to the scene and directed Kachel to the body. The scene of the killing was approximately 1 1/2 miles from Kachel's property on Lois Lane, which was accessible to the Caribou Creek location by foot paths that had been etched into the forest, according to the affidavit. Kachel allegedly hitched the sled to an all-terrain vehicle and rode off.
The killing's backdrop appears to be Bonner County's drug underworld, according to court documents. Kachel's property is described in court documents as compound of camp trailers, junked vehicles and other debris which is known for drug activity.
Hurst avoided or was not welcome at Kachel's compound due to thefts and outstanding drug-related debts, according to court documents. A relative of Hurst's said he was a longtime drug user whose addiction had reached new heights in the weeks leading up to his slaying.
Gatens, 28, was arrested on Oct. 8 after leading a deputy on a high-speed chase through Clark Fork. A search of her vehicle yielded nearly a dozen hypodermic needle-tipped syringes, most of which had been used. An unspecified amount of methamphetamine was also recovered.
Although not noted in her arrest report, Gatens was bleeding from the left side of her head, a wound which required staples to close. The deputy who made the arrest told a detective that Gatens stated she had been struck by "Brandon" but refused to further elaborate, according to the affidavit in Gatens' murder conspiracy case.
Gatens later called Hurst from a videoconferencing kiosk while incarcerated at the Bonner County Jail and accused him of being a police informant and of inflicting her head wound. Hurst, the affidavit said, denied the allegations.
Hurst's relative said Gatens was reportedly carrying Hurst's child, although Gatens told detectives her drug use had disrupted her menstrual cycle, causing her to mistakenly believe she was pregnant, court records indicate.
Gatens, according to another witness in the case, repeatedly sent Hurst threatening messages on a routine basis, although it did not appear to dim his affection for her, court documents said. That witness also claimed that Hurst had been having an affair with the girlfriend of Kachel, which caused friction between the two men.
That witness said she had a platonic relationship with Hurst until she became aware that he was a police informant. The woman also told detectives that Gatens was mentally unstable, violent and delusional.
The woman allegedly witnessed the altercation between Gatens and Hurst in Clark Fork. She told detectives that Gatens accused Hurst of stealing a knife, which Gatens was holding and used to attack Hurst with. Hurst, the woman said, restrained Gatens to break off the attack and then left the area.
Preliminary hearings in the cases against Gatens and Kachel are set for Jan. 6, 2021. Mouser's initial court appearance and preliminary hearing are pending.
Keith Kinnaird can be reached at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com or followed on Twitter @KeithDailyBee
