Barney Lerten
(Update: Adding ex-wife’s cross-examination, testimony by 2 Portland police officers)
BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) — Samson Garner’s ex-wife testified by video at his trial Friday, offering details about how their marriage had hit rough times and she eventually moved to Michigan with their two children and filed for divorce. It was finalized shortly before Garner is accused of planning to commit a mass shooting at a Smith Rock climbing event.
“He felt that having children was a hindrance to his outdoor endeavors,” Lindsey Garner said of her ex-husband, with whom he had two children. Their divorce was finalized in September of 2023, and Garner was arrested at a campsite in the Maston mountain bike trails complex near Tumalo the day before the Craggin’ Classic was due to begin at Smith Rock.
Deschutes County Circuit Judge Alison Emerson agreed to Lindsey Garner’s request that she not be photographed during her remote testimony in a trial expected to last about three weeks. Garner’s ex-girlfriend, Penny Gneiting, testified on Thursday.
Deputy District Attorney Stacy Neil led her through the details of their final interactions and Samson Garner’s withdrawal from participating in the divorce proceedings.
Lindsey Garner initiated divorce proceedings in February of 2023 and the divorce was finalized in late September.
Asked her overall impression of the text messages he sent before the divorce proceedings began, she said, “They were not kind messages, and I usually received them late at night.”
She received sole legal custody of the children, and while Samson Garner was allowed to see his children by video, with third-party supervision, “he had stopped participating” in the divorce proceedings by that time and no such interactions took place, she said.
Lindsey Garner said she learned through the court process that her husband had taken money from the children’s savings accounts, as well as from his retirement 401(K), and received a letter from the IRS, saying he owed a large sum for unpaid taxes.
While Samson Garner did reach out earlier in 2023 to ask about the children, leading to an email exchange, the effort to formally serve him papers in person had proven difficult, so the court allowed that to be done through mail and emails.
He was ordered to pay $2,615 a month total in child support, but stopped paying in August, she said.
Lindsey Garner said police in Michigan learned of Garner’s threat against her and her family, and increased neighborhood patrols for a period of time.
During cross-examination Friday afternoon, Lindsey Garner told defense attorney Joel Wirtz that she didn’t go on many of her husband’s climbing trips with friends. She also acknowledged they went to a marriage counselor “for a short period of time,” and that she had a planned pregnancy, as they had talked about having children.
She also said her husband alternated between not drink and periods he would drink to excess.
The couple had been to Smith Rock on several occasions, sometimes just the two of them, staying at Eagle Crest, and once with their children. Asked if he ever brought guns along, she said, “I think maybe once.”
The trips they took, like one to Europe, left Samson happier when they returned: “It was definitely something that brought him joy.”
Because of her husband’s interest in guns and target shooting, Lindsey said she agreed to take a safety course that included one day of shooting at a range.
“Did it pique your interest?” Wirtz asked her.
“It did not,” she replied.
The week’s testimony concluded with two Portland police officers, Ciristin Bolles and Jeffrey Haagenson, who told of the steps they took after being informed by a close friend of Garner in August 2023 and his ex-girlfriend in early October about the frightening emails and texts that included talk of suicide and homicide.
They both took crisis intervention training – Bolles basic, Haagenson advanced – and made use of a Threat Assessment Referral Program, or TARP.
“Based on his possible mental health problems, the fact that he’s known to be armed, so I decided that this qualified for one of the TARP referrals, a threat assessment referral, so I did fill out one of those, along with the referral to the behavioral health unit,” she said, later noting it’s one of the few times she’s much such referrals in the past 15 years.
Bolles said she did swing by Garner’s home but didn’t knock, based on the homicidal and suicidal ideations, “the last thing I wanted to do is confront” him, along with “no indication he was going to do something that day.”
Haagenson said he spoke with Garner’s ex-girlfriend, Peny Gneiting, she called Portland police on Oct. 4 after she called to report his email and threat of suicide. He knocked on the door in a welfare check that night, but there was no answer. He contacted a sergeant and said, “I felt it was a pretty high-priority situation.”
“There were financial troubles, relationship troubles, custody issues job issues – all these factors combining for one person – a lot of stress,” he said. “In this case, there was both a plan, and intent to go carry out the plan.” He said it was “clearly thought out, even edited – not sort of a drunken rambling or something.”
The trial resumes next Monday afternoon, with expected testimony from Portland Police detectives about how their investigation proceeded.
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