Michael DeFrance of Montana: Gun Case Reversal and Charlo Ties

Michael DeFrance is a Montana man known publicly for two connected reasons: he was the last person seen with Jermain Charlo, a member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes who vanished from Missoula on June 15, 2018, and he was later convicted in federal court on firearms charges arising from that investigation — a conviction the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned in December 2024. He has never been charged in connection with Charlo’s disappearance.

Why His Name Is Tied to Jermain Charlo

Security cameras captured Charlo walking with DeFrance through an alley behind The Badlander bar in downtown Missoula just before midnight on June 15, 2018. DeFrance was her ex-boyfriend and the father of her two children. She has not been seen since.¹

Cell phone data became central to investigators’ interest in him. Between roughly 2 a.m. and 10 a.m. on June 16, Charlo’s phone pinged a tower near Evaro Hill, where DeFrance lived — placing her phone at his home in the hours after the two left the bar together.¹

His Shifting Accounts

DeFrance’s story about that night changed several times. He told Charlo’s aunt in a text message that he had dropped Charlo off at the Orange Street Food Farm, a Missoula convenience store. He told police something different: that he left her in a residential area about eight blocks away, and that she planned to stay with a friend named “Cassidy.” Investigators could not identify anyone matching that description.¹²

His account of Charlo’s phone also shifted. He first said she had taken it with her. After cell records showed both phones traveling together to his home, he said she had left it in his vehicle. He then said he had been unable to unlock it and had thrown it out on June 18, 2018, at mile marker 94 on Highway 12 in Idaho, along a trucking route he drove. The phone has never been recovered.¹²

Investigators also asked why DeFrance had sent Facebook messages to Charlo after her disappearance, telling her she had “walked off into the night,” when he knew he had her phone and she would never read them.²

The 2013 Domestic Violence Conviction

In April 2013, DeFrance pleaded guilty to partner or family member assault, a misdemeanor under Montana Code 45-5-206(1)(a), for physically assaulting Charlo. He was sentenced to 24 hours in jail and domestic-violence-focused counseling.³ Detective Guy Baker, the lead investigator on Charlo’s case, said DeFrance had been arrested twice for domestic violence, and family described him as “very controlling.”²

That misdemeanor is what later put DeFrance in federal firearms jeopardy. Federal law prohibits anyone convicted of a “misdemeanor crime of domestic violence” from possessing guns.

The Federal Firearms Case

On June 27, 2018, eleven days after Charlo disappeared, a Missoula police detective found a Smith and Wesson .357-caliber revolver, ammunition, and two .22-caliber rifles in DeFrance’s truck. On October 2, 2018, a search of his Evaro Hill home turned up more firearms, including the same revolver and two rifles in his bedroom.⁴

DeFrance was charged with one count of being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm and three counts of making false statements on ATF Form 4473 during firearms purchases.⁵ After a bench trial before U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen on April 26 and 27, 2023, he was found guilty on all four counts.³ On September 21, 2023, he was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison and three years of supervised release.⁶

Charlo’s aunt, Valenda Underwood, attended the sentencing. She called it “not exactly the victory that we wanted. Just this smallest little bit of justice.”⁷

The Ninth Circuit Reversal

On December 30, 2024, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit — Circuit Judges Morgan Christen and Jennifer Sung, sitting with District Judge Jed Rakoff — reversed DeFrance’s firearms conviction and vacated his sentence.⁸

The reversal turned on a mismatch between Montana and federal definitions. The federal firearms ban applies to a “misdemeanor crime of domestic violence,” which requires the “use or attempted use of physical force.” Montana’s partner or family member assault statute defines “bodily injury” to include “mental illness or impairment,” meaning the state offense can theoretically be committed without physical contact. Under the categorical approach, courts compare statutory elements rather than what a defendant actually did. Because Montana’s law sweeps more broadly than the federal definition, the panel held that a PFMA conviction does not qualify as the federal predicate — even though DeFrance’s 2013 conduct was in fact physical.⁸

The panel relied on its 2023 ruling in United States v. Castro, which had already found Montana’s PFMA statute too broad to qualify as a federal “crime of violence” under the sentencing guidelines.⁹

The judges expressed discomfort with the result. Judge Christen wrote that the outcome “cannot be what Congress intended.” Judge Rakoff called it “bizarre” and said “Congress never remotely intended the counter-intuitive results that the categorical approach has engendered.”¹⁰ The panel also noted that “the results in this case would be different if Montana’s laws were less protective of domestic violence victims.”¹¹

The case was sent back to the U.S. District Court in Missoula for resentencing and further proceedings.

What the Ruling Means for Domestic Violence Cases in Montana

The practical effect is that a Montana PFMA conviction no longer triggers the federal firearms ban. University of Montana law professor Andrew King-Ries said the decision removed “a very important tool to protect survivors of domestic violence” at the federal level in the state.¹²

King-Ries said the court had reached its conclusion based on a “completely hypothetical case” rather than the facts before it, adding that no attorneys he had spoken with could identify a real prosecution under Montana’s PFMA law based solely on emotional harm without physical force. Both the panel and outside legal experts have called for a fix from the Montana legislature, Congress, or the Supreme Court. Until one arrives, King-Ries said, “survivors are more at risk than they were before.”¹²

The Charlo Investigation Today

Jermain Charlo has not been found. Officers executed a search warrant on DeFrance’s Evaro Hill property in August 2018 that authorized thermal imaging and aerial observation, but police have not discussed the results publicly. A search in Idaho for Charlo’s phone did not recover it. Human trafficking was considered and ruled out, with Deputy Attorney Brittany Williams saying investigators “have enough evidence through this investigation that lends itself to believe something else has happened to her.”¹

DeFrance has not been named a suspect or charged in Charlo’s disappearance. He declined to speak with the Cold Justice producers, who featured the case in the show’s season eight finale in November 2025, without an attorney present. After that episode, Missoula police met with the county prosecutor, who agreed to take a “hard look at the case.” Detective Baker told viewers he was “very confident” the family would get resolution in the “very near future.”²

1
CBS News. Jermain Charlo Search Michael DeFrance Investigation Montana Timeline
2
Oxygen. Cold Justice Investigates Jermain Charlo’s Disappearance
3
vlex. United States v. DeFrance
4
KPAX. Judge Finds Ex-Boyfriend of Missing Missoula Woman Guilty of Firearms Charges
5
Daily Montanan. Judge: Jermain Charlo’s Ex-Boyfriend Guilty of Illegal Firearms Possession, False Statements
6
NBC Montana. 9th Circuit Court Overturns Man’s Gun Conviction Citing Broad Domestic Assault Law
7
KPAX. Ex-Boyfriend of Missing Dixon Woman Sentenced on Firearms Charges
8
FindLaw. United States v. DeFrance, No. 23-2409
9
FindLaw. United States v. Castro
10
NBC Montana. 9th Circuit Court Overturns Man’s Gun Conviction Citing Broad Domestic Assault Law
11
KPAX. 9th Circuit Court Overturns Michael DeFrance’s Federal Gun Charge Conviction
12
KPAX. Federal Firearms Decision Impacts Montana Domestic Violence Cases