It took a SWAT team, a chemical bomb and finally a police K-9 to arrest a 47-year-old Gillette man accused of relentlessly stalking a woman he had already done prison time for stalking.
When officers from the Gillette Police Department caught up with Tony Corbett at his James Court home on Saturday and told him he was under arrest, Corbett had other ideas, Officer Brittany Huff wrote in an affidavit of probable cause filed in the case.
“Announcements were made to Tony that he was under arrest, to which he came to the front door, opened it, and said, ‘No, I’m not!’ and returned inside the residence, leaving the door open,” according to the affidavit.
When police then deployed a drone into the home to observe Corbett, “Tony grabbed it out of the air and threw it outside into a bush, so a flash bang was deployed near the front door,” Huff wrote.
That also proved ineffective, and Corbett slammed the door closed, escalating the standoff.
It wasn’t until what the affidavit calls a “chemical agent” was launched into the house that Corbett came outside, the affidavit says.
Even then, he was noncompliant with police, Huff wrote.
“Tony exited to the east side with his hands in his pockets and refused to remove them,” according to the affidavit. “A less-lethal impact munition was deployed with a positive impact on Tony’s right thigh in an attempt to gain compliance.”
When he still resisted and refused to comply with law enforcement commands, Huff wrote that “a police K-9 was deployed and physically apprehended Tony so he could be placed into handcuffs.”
Corbett was charged with felony stalking, along with misdemeanor possession of meth and interference with a peace officer.
He had his first court appearance Tuesday, where a Campbell County Circuit Court judge gave him a bond of $50,000 cash or surety and set an Oct. 20 preliminary hearing.
The standoff was the culmination of more than a year of allegedly stalking the same woman he was convicted of stalking in 2023, the affidavit says.
76 Calls In 3 Hours
Corbett came onto the radar of the GPD earlier Saturday when a frightened woman called 911 to report he was on her front porch.
Believing Corbett was monitoring police dispatch radio, officers arrived to find he was already gone, but he continued to call, text and message the woman on Snapchat while they were there, Huff wrote.
“Tony had called her approximately 76 times in three hours and repeatedly called her over and over again while officers were on scene,” the affidavit says. “Tony also continued texting her and sending her Snapchat messages while officers were on scene.”
The woman told police that Corbett had been harassing and stalking her for over a year, and would leave things with her vehicle while it was parked at work, the affidavit says. However, she refrained from reporting him because she was afraid of what he might do.
“Every time she directly tells Tony to stop and leave her alone or she blocks his phone number, it makes him escalate, so she attempts to play nice in order to calm him down,” Huff wrote.
The woman also did not give Corbett “any indication they were in a relationship,” the affidavit continues.
The situation went to another level Saturday, she told police.
“This morning, he sent her a picture of an AR-15 rifle with a gold butt stock and a tan bipod saying that he just bought it,” the affidavit says. “He then showed up at her house.”
Corbett also told the woman that he knew her car wasn’t home before 6 a.m., indicating he had been watching her house during the night.
The woman then “called the police because she was scared and didn’t know what Tony was going to do,” Huff wrote.
Threatened To Make Cops Shoot Him
Before going to Corbett’s house to arrest him on suspicion of stalking, Gillette police were already on high alert because of things he texted to the woman, the affidavit says.
“While officers were on scene, Tony was still sending (the woman) text messages indicating that he was going to get into a shootout with police because he refused to go back to prison,” Huff wrote.
He also said that “he was going to put her on speakerphone so that she could hear the whole thing,” the affidavit adds.
He also said that he would answer the door with his rifle so police would be forced to shoot him and would board up his windows in preparation for a shootout.
While he was noncompliant when police arrived, the affidavit doesn’t indicate that any of those other things Corbett threatened actually happened.
Inside the home, police found an AR-15 that resembled the photo he sent the woman, along with another AR-15 rifle, two black suppressors that appeared to be homemade, a meth pipe with residue in it, and a first-aid kit with more meth inside, the affidavit says.
If convicted of felony stalking, Corbett could get a maximum of 10 years in prison, a fine of up to $10,000, or both.
Each of the two misdemeanor charges max out at a year in jail and a $1,000 fine.
Greg Johnson can be reached at greg@cowboystatedaily.com.
