After a 27-year-old woman was shot on S. 29th St. on the South Side of Billings last week and taken to the hospital with “non-life threatening injuries”, Billings Police responded to the scene where witnesses said a man fired shots from inside a Mercedes at a green truck. The victim identified Marlin Parker, who police have said is 24 years old but court documents say he is 34, as the shooter and said that she had gotten a ride with the man in the truck when the Mercedes, driven by Parker, cut them off and fired. Her driver drove away and Parker then allegedly grabbed her through the window and demanded $200 she owed him before she was shot.
Around 8am the next morning, Montana Highway Patrol troopers reported being in pursuit of the Mercedes and they believed Parker was the driver, but the chase was called off. Just an hour later, an officer found a Cadillac Escalade registered to Parker’s mother, Marlena Sunshine Bigday, at the home of one of Parker’s friends. After the vehicle left, the officer attempted to pull in over, but it continued on into the Heights, going south on Main St. and going about 60 miles per hour. As Bigday crossed from the Heights to the North Side, she nearly caused several collisions along 6th Ave. N. before an officer struck her vehicle and brought her to a stop.
Bigday told officers she had fled because she didn’t want her son to be shot by police and Parker was telling her not to stop. Parker told police he had shot the victim in self-defense, saying that he thought she was reaching for a gun but the victim alleges she never had a weapon of any kind. With the meth and marijuana found in Parker’s seat adding onto his prior charges, he was taken into custody and is being held at the Yellowstone County Detention Facility on $500,000 bond. Detention records list his charges as felony criminal possession of dangerous drugs, felony robbery, and felony attempted deliberate homicide. He faces a minimum of 10 years and up to a life sentence in prison on his three felony charges and Bigday faces up to 20 years for felony criminal endangerment and obstructing justice.
