This story was originally published by Montana Free Press.
An Anaconda man accused of planning to kill an abortion provider in Missoula earlier this month and firing a gun at a Helena clinic in 2023 is being held on $5 million bail.
Missoula County prosecutors last week charged Charles Felix Jones, 20, with two counts of assault with a weapon, intimidation and criminal trespass, a misdemeanor, after he allegedly broke into the doctor’s backyard with a gun March 8 and threw the weapon and other items at the back window, according to court documents.
After his arrest, Jones also admitted to firing into the front entry of the Helena Planned Parenthood clinic in 2023 when he was 17 years old, according to charging documents. Neither the police nor the FBI had previously identified a suspect in the case. The Helena Police Department last week told Montana Free Press that a suspect connected to the 2023 shooting had been recently arrested in another jurisdiction, but wouldn’t give more details.
According to court records, Jones turned himself in to the Anaconda Police Department March 8. He was booked into the Missoula County jail March 12. Jones appeared before Missoula District Court Judge Jason Marks Monday and pleaded not guilty, according to the Missoula County Attorney’s office. His next hearing is scheduled for May 19, and he remained in the Missoula County jail Wednesday.
Jones told Missoula police detectives that he targeted the doctor for providing abortions and that he had been passionate about anti-abortion causes for “many years,” according to charging documents.
Jones, who moved to Anaconda from Manhattan, Montana, about eight months ago, said he drove to Missoula on March 8 to attend a pro-life event at Blue Mountain Clinic. He said he located the doctor’s address through internet research and that evening, drove and walked by the house before entering the backyard. According to the charging documents, the doctor and the medical provider’s spouse were eating dinner when Jones approached the glass door. Jones told detectives he knocked on the window, dropped his gun and walked away. He turned back around and threw other items on the porch before leaving.
Jones told police he planned to shoot the doctor before changing his mind. What stopped him might have been “cowardice, mercy or something greater,” he told detectives. He returned to Anaconda and turned himself in at the Anaconda Police Station that night.
“He was right there with the loaded gun. I mean, I just feel like we got really lucky that he backed out, but it was really close.”
The doctor’s spouse called 911 at about 8:45 p.m. to report a man in the backyard with a gun. Police didn’t find a suspect on the property when they arrived, but found a cellphone and wallet with Jones’ driver’s license in it on the porch, according to the charging documents. The doctor reported grabbing the gun when Jones first walked away. The revolver’s hammer was down, and it contained six unfired rounds, according to police.
“He was right there with the loaded gun,” the doctor’s spouse told detectives. “I mean, I just feel like we got really lucky that he backed out, but it was really close.”
Jones also detailed for police how he shot at the Helena Planned Parenthood building in 2023. He said he took a shotgun and drove from Manhattan to Helena. Jones said he did not intend to hurt anyone but “wanted to make people more open to violence,” according to the charging documents.
Jones’ parents confiscated his firearms in September 2025, he told police, but he said he took the revolver back without their knowledge earlier this year. Jones said he had a rifle in his apartment and a list of people he intended to harm, according to the charging documents.
Jones told detectives he was inspired by Luigi Mangione, who is accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City in December 2024. Jones said he admired men from the 1990s who killed abortion providers and bombed clinics.
While Jones said he planned on bombing a building in Whitefish in July 2024, he didn’t go through with it. It’s unclear if the building he targeted was a reproductive health clinic. Jones also said he considered targeting the leadership of Planned Parenthood of Montana.
Planned Parenthood of Montana is working with law enforcement on a “security-related investigation,” and its four clinics remain open to patients, said Martha Fuller, the organization’s CEO and president, in a Tuesday statement to MTFP.
“No one should face harassment, intimidation, or violence for receiving, or providing, essential health care,” Fuller said. “We are proud to serve Montanans and their families with the care they need, including abortion care. Planned Parenthood of Montana’s commitment to serving patients is, and always will be, unwavering.”
Abortion is legal in Montana and was protected by the right to privacy before being cemented in the state Constitution when voters approved Constitutional Initiative 128 in 2024. Multiple bills passed since 2021 by Republican lawmakers seeking to restrict abortion have been blocked in court.
Violence and threats against abortion clinics and providers have increased nationwide in recent years.
In 2015, a man was sentenced to five years in state prison for vandalizing the All Families Healthcare clinic in Kalispell. Blue Mountain Clinic in Missoula was firebombed by an anti-abortion activist in 1993 and later rebuilt.
Joey Banks, a family physician at Blue Mountain Clinic who has provided reproductive health care for more than 20 years, told MTFP in a Tuesday interview that safety concerns are always at the back of her mind.
“You end up getting a P.O. box, wiping the web, just taking extra precautions,” she said.
While threats and violence against abortion clinics and providers have happened before, Banks said she has more of a “heads up” attitude after this recent incident.
After working in Missoula for about 15 years, as well as in Alaska, Illinois and Oklahoma, Banks said she feels relatively safe. People picketing outside the Missoula clinic are generally shaming patients but, for the most part, are not dangerous, she said. Still, Banks said, she perceives society as going backwards, as if it’s “OK to be violent with people you don’t agree with.”
