by Travis Mateer

If David Winterburn had been homeless–meaning without any personal property of significant value to take–I’m not sure our criminal justice system would have handled him losing his shit in the same way. Are the charges serious? Yes they are, and “Rasta Dave” is still sitting in jail as I write this on $750,000 dollar bond, so for now the community is safe from THIS particular individual who allegedly went berserker, causing Lowell school to temporarily go on lock down.

Here are the charges:

Since writing this post about Winterburn’s arrest, I’ve had several conversations about the days and months leading up to the standoff with police that COULD HAVE resulted in Rasta Dave getting shot. I’ve talked to three neighbors, an old acquaintance, and a former roommate, and the picture emerging is fascinating, though it doesn’t bode well for Rasta Dave and his ability to defend himself in court.

What could be at stake? Well, the future ownership of this piece of property, which Dave either built entirely himself, or improved on significantly over the years:

On Friday I knocked on the door again, but no one answered. That’s when I met a neighbor who has lived in Missoula for over 60 years. He knows Dave well, and confirmed what I had been hearing from several sources: Rasta Dave’s decline was precipitated by a relationship with a woman he met in Jamaica, but instead of a companion who Dave thought he was engaged to, she turned out to be an extortionist with ties to a Jamaican street gang.

Sounds like an interesting variation on the Nigerian romance scam.

According to the neighbor, the alleged female victim of Winterburn’s rage moved out of the house a few days ago. I guess the dream of helping Rasta Dave run an Airbnb is officially over.

But what about this burglary that occurred BEFORE Winterburn lost it? Was it just a case of roommates reporting a legitimate crime, or was something else going on? Like maybe a setup? Hopefully those people won’t disappear if/when David Winterburn approaches his day in court.

As for the Jamaican love interest, that’s WAY beyond my capacity to check out. Unless someone wants to buy me a ticket to Jamaica, I think I’ll let a more appropriate entity follow up on that interesting piece of local news.

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Thanks for reading!