Attorneys made opening statements Wednesday in the trial of a man accused of planning a mass shooting in 2023 at a popular rock climbing event in Central Oregon.
Following two days of jury selection, Deschutes County Chief Deputy District Attorney Mary Anderson laid out her case that Samson Garner, 41, had plotted for weeks to kill people at the Smith Rock Craggin’ Classic.
Anderson said police arrested Garner at the Maston Trail System north of Tumalo. Officers found him sitting next to his Subaru in a camp chair, flip flops on, feet up and beer in hand. Inside his car, according to prosecutors, were guns and ammunition.
Anderson said the ammunition found in Garner’s car was put together in such a way that felt familiar to the tactical officers who arrested him.
Garner’s defense attorney, Joel Wirtz, countered the narrative from prosecutors in his own opening statement.
“Nobody got shot. No gun was fired. No gun was ever even pointed,” he told the jury at the Deschutes County courthouse. Wirtz downplayed the weapons, saying Garner wasn’t properly outfitted to do what the state has alleged.
Extensive search warrants of Garner’s website browser history failed to turn up any searches for Smith Rock State Park or the Smith Rock Craggin’ Classic, Wirtz said.
But Garner did have ample knowledge of the event and mentioned it by name in an email to a former girlfriend, according to Anderson. She described it as an email with suicidal ideation that led the woman to eventually call the Portland Police Bureau.
Anderson read excerpts from the email where Garner wrote about dying by suicide and imagining mass shooting scenarios at the climbing event or the first day of the ski season at Mount Hood.
Garner, a mountain biker, climber, skier and mountaineer has special knowledge and skills that would allow him to carry out the mass shooting he described, Anderson said.
Wirtz acknowledged to the jury that Garner’s mental health was declining in the summer of 2023. He said Garner stopped seeing his friends and exercising before his arrest.
But, the items he was purchasing and vacations he was planning were inconsistent with someone who was about to commit a mass shooting. Garner bought stereo equipment for his car, booked vacations out of state and purchased a new set of skis and boots.
He didn’t buy any guns or ammunition in 2023 either, Wirtz said.
The trial about a mass shooting that didn’t happen is likely to touch on freedom of speech, the burden of responsibility a gun owner carries when their mental health begins to unravel, and when an unlawful act is actually attempted.
Garner’s marriage had fallen apart and he started to send threatening text messages to former friends. He sent one to a friend that had moved away, stating he had “regret of a violent act not taken,” Anderson said.
“One of the only things I regret is not cutting your head off while Sarah watched. I’ve got the hand saw and everything. Just never found the time. Can you imagine the noise she would have made? Worth it just for that,” said Anderson, reading from a transcript of the text message Garner sent to a former friend.
The trial is scheduled to go on for nearly four weeks, until Sept. 11. Anderson said she expected it to be a “long trial.”
Witness lists indicate jurors will be hearing from Garner’s ex-girlfriend, ex-wife and law enforcement officers in the coming days.
This story comes to you from the Northwest News Network, a collaboration between public media organizations in Oregon and Washington.
