KELLOGG, Idaho – A man was found dead in Kellogg on Monday. New court documents offer information regarding two men arrested on manslaughter charges following the death investigation.
The body of Reed Norris was found near the barber shop according to an affidavit of probable cause filed in district court.
An Idaho State Police detective claims that he reviewed surveillance video from the Dirty Dog Bar on Saturday night which showed Norris leaving the bar with two men.
Court documents go on to state that Norris was in an altercation with two men, August Mota and Martin Duncan, early Sunday morning around midnight.
The detective claims that Mota and Duncan were temporarily in Kellogg serving on a fire crew.
Interviews conducted with patrons and staff at the Dirty Dog offered potential context for the alleged altercation.
“[A witness] mentioned at some point an unknown male told [them] Norris was agitating them due to possible racial comments he was making towards Mota and Duncan,” court documents stated.
When detectives interviewed Mota, court documents say that Mota characterized the night’s altercation as innocuous.
“Mota said that Norris told him that Norris was a south sider (gang affiliation) and had threatened Mota saying he had a gun…Mota indicated there was an altercation but didn’t elaborate on what the altercation consisted of,” court documents stated.
Mota purportedly told investigators that Norris walked away after fighting him and Duncan.
Duncan later allegedly told investigators that the fight with Norris left him with facial and leg injuries, and that he was knocked out. Another witness claimed that Norris was also knocked out during the fight.
Court documents state that Norris’ cause of death was due to being struck.
“At the end of the autopsy, the practicing Medical Examiner gave a verbal account of her preliminary findings and concluded Norris’s cause of death was blunt force trauma by epidermal hematoma to the right side of Norris’s head,” court documents stated.
Investigators concluded the probable cause affidavit by asserting that Norris likely died due to injuries sustained during an altercation.
“Norris’s death was more likely than not a result of a physical altercation/fight between Norris, Mota and Duncan,” court documents stated.
Duncan and Mota were arrested and booked into Shoshone County Jail on felony manslaughter charges on Tuesday.
