{"id":24166,"date":"2026-04-01T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/?p=24166"},"modified":"2026-04-26T20:35:36","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T01:35:36","slug":"wales-man-held-on-2m-bond-in-murder-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wales-man-held-on-2m-bond-in-murder-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Wales Man Held on $2M Bond in Murder Case"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wales, North Dakota<\/strong> (trfnews.i234.me<\/a>) \u2014 A Wales man is facing a murder charge after a fatal shooting at his home on March 26. Russell Andrew Hiltner, 33, is being held on a $2 million cash bond.<\/p>\n

Charges Filed<\/h2>\n

Hiltner is charged with Class AA felony murder. If convicted, he could face life in prison without parole. He also faces Class B felony charges of property theft and terrorizing.<\/p>\n

What Investigators Say Happened<\/h2>\n

According to a probable cause statement, officers responded around 9 p.m. to Hiltner\u2019s home in Wales. Inside, they found a man dead on the living room floor. The man had an apparent gunshot wound to the chest.<\/p>\n

An eyewitness told investigators that Hiltner hugged the victim, accused him of stealing, then pulled a pistol from under a couch cushion and fired one shot.<\/p>\n

The witness said she feared for her life and believed she could be shot next.<\/p>\n

Crash and Arrest<\/h2>\n

The witness told authorities that Hiltner took the victim\u2019s vehicle and fled. The vehicle was later found on Second Avenue near County Road 55 in Wales. It had crashed into a large tree. Investigators said the vehicle appeared to be traveling at a high speed. The airbags had deployed.<\/p>\n

Hiltner was found inside the vehicle. Authorities said he later put his hands out the window. Investigators recovered a 9mm handgun from the passenger seat. They said one round remained in the chamber.<\/p>\n

Evidence and Court Dates<\/h2>\n

Hiltner was taken to Langdon Prairie Health and later airlifted to Altru Health System<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation later searched the home. Investigators reported finding a bullet in a living room wall, a shell casing near the victim, and evidence said to match the handgun recovered from the vehicle.<\/p>\n

Hiltner appeared for a bond hearing on March 30. He is scheduled to return to court at 9 a.m. on April 9. He remains in custody at the Grand Forks County Correctional Center.<\/p>\n

If released, he would be barred from contacting two unnamed people and could not leave North Dakota without permission. Court records also show he applied for court-appointed counsel and was denied.<\/p>\n

For case information, readers can review updates through the North Dakota Courts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I’m Chris Harper reporting for TRF News<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Wales
Wales Man Held on $2M Bond in Murder Case<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wales, North Dakota (trfnews.i234.me) \u2014 A Wales man is facing a murder charge after a fatal shooting at his home on March 26. Russell Andrew Hiltner, 33, is being held on a $2 million cash bond. Charges Filed Hiltner is charged with Class AA felony murder. If convicted, he could face life in prison without […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24213,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_wpscp_schedule_draft_date":"","_wpscp_schedule_republish_date":"","_wpscppro_advance_schedule":false,"_wpscppro_advance_schedule_date":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":null,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"default","_twitter_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type":"default","_pinterest_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"default","_medium_share_type":"default","_threads_share_type":"default","_bluesky_share_type":"","_mastodon_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"default","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"","timeOption":"","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":""},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[12],"tags":[1197,1123,15676,1208,7661],"trf_mt_town":[],"trf_mt_county":[],"trf_mt_topic":[],"trf_mt_series":[],"class_list":["post-24166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime","tag-criminal-charges","tag-grand-forks-county","tag-russell-andrew-hiltner","tag-shooting","tag-traffic-crash"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24166\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24166"},{"taxonomy":"trf_mt_town","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/trf_mt_town?post=24166"},{"taxonomy":"trf_mt_county","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/trf_mt_county?post=24166"},{"taxonomy":"trf_mt_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/trf_mt_topic?post=24166"},{"taxonomy":"trf_mt_series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/trf_mt_series?post=24166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}