Charles Crane/MDN Deputy State’s Attorney Tiffany Sorgen and Minot Police Detective Elijah Hanks huddle for a discussion after the testimony of Travis McDermott during his trial on Wednesday. The jury returned a guilty verdict early Thursday.

A jury of nine men and three women returned a guilty verdict on two felony counts for the Minot man who shot and killed another man at a concert last May.

Travis McDermott, 40, Minot, had pleaded not guilty to the felony charges of manslaughter and reckless endangerment that derived from an altercation at a Minot bar in the early morning hours of May 14, 2023. The jury found McDermott guilty after two days of testimony in North Central District Court, with the verdict presented to the court early Thursday morning.

The state presented testimony from witnesses and law enforcement, including Ciarra Wald, the girlfriend of the victim, Greyson Sletto, 32, Willow City. Sletto was a farmer and father of three sons who Wald said was in town to attend a birthday party at a local hotel. The couple had decided to attend the Tripwire concert at The Original after another parent volunteered to supervise his children that evening.

McDermott was the sole witness called by the defense during the trial, testifying on his own behalf as his attorney, Philip Becher, moved frame by frame through security camera footage of the incident. McDermott and Becher presented to the jury that Sletto was aggressive and was “posturing to fight,” leading McDermott to brandish a concealed firearm on his person. McDermott claimed Sletto escalated their altercation by attempting to take his firearm and that he was threatening his life.

Ward County Deputy State’s Attorney Tiffany Sorgen aggressively questioned McDermott regarding his firearm training and why he brought his firearm into the bar despite it being illegal in North Dakota. McDermott indicated he would often carry his firearm everywhere he “was legally allowed to,” unless there was explicit signage banning them.

Sorgen also honed in on a statement McDermott made at the scene when bystanders restrained him after the shooting.

“I said, ‘I should not have done that, but he threatened my life. He was going to kill me.’ I wish it never would have happened. But I also had to protect my own life,” McDermott testified. “I believe I did what I had to do to get home to my own family.”

The jury was not swayed by McDermott’s claims and instead agreed with Sorgen’s arguments that McDermott had escalated the situation by bringing the gun into the bar and then brandishing it at Sletto instead of backing off and leaving.

McDermott now faces a potential sentence of up to 10 years in the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation for the count of manslaughter, a Class B felony, and five years in prison for the count of reckless endangerment, a Class C felony. District Court Judge Todd Cresap ordered a presentence investigation and scheduled McDermott’s sentencing for May 6.