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Jaydee Haagenson entered a no contest plea to mitigated deliberate homicide after Jerod Daniel Williams, 30, of Vaughn, Montana, was strangled at a residence in Great Falls early on May 6, 2009, according to court records.

Police arrested Haagenson, then 29, within hours and charged him with deliberate homicide. Haagenson later told investigators he and Williams were close friends.

A recording associated with the case captures a call to the Great Falls/Cascade County dispatch center made before Williams was found dead. Court filings reviewed for this case do not spell out how the call was handled by dispatch; they establish only that Williams was killed a short time later at the residence.

At the time, Haagenson was on parole from Montana State Prison, where he had been sent in 2007 after pleading guilty to criminal distribution of methamphetamine. His release terms required him to remain law-abiding and to avoid alcohol. Court records state he was intoxicated when Williams was killed.

A Cascade County judge revoked both Haagenson's parole and the seven-year suspended portion of his earlier drug sentence based on the homicide. Haagenson appealed, arguing the two revocations for the same conduct amounted to double jeopardy. The Montana Supreme Court rejected that argument on May 4, 2010, ruling that administrative parole revocation and a judicial suspended-sentence revocation are separate sanctions that can both follow from one act.

The homicide charge itself took longer to resolve. Under a later plea agreement, Haagenson entered a no contest plea to mitigated deliberate homicide, an offense carrying a possible sentence of two to 40 years in Montana. He subsequently asked to withdraw the plea; a district court judge denied the request, and the Montana Supreme Court affirmed that denial on Aug. 19, 2014.

Williams was employed at a Town Pump store at the time of his death and lived in Vaughn with his wife, Bonita, and their two sons. His brother, Jason Williams, said afterward that Jerod was well-spoken, kind-hearted and devoted to his children.