Mills sentenced for resisting arrest, other charges dropped

What began as a felony warrant arrest in Pontiac last spring eventually unraveled into a string of bizarre incidents involving a man hiding in a closet for nearly two hours, an occupied vacation cabin claimed through “adverse possession,” neglected dogs, property damage and multiple run-ins with law enforcement. Now, those cases have reached their conclusion.

On May 20, 43-year-old Brandon Mills of Pontiac, pleaded guilty to five charges stemming from the events and received a suspended four-year prison sentence and five years of probation.

He was given a suspended execution of sentence and placed on probation for 5 years after pleading guilty to resisting arrest to an incident on March 17, 2025. If he violates his probation, the judge can execute a 4-year back-up prison sentence. 

The other four charges were misdemeanors. He was sentenced to 10 days in jail on each with credit for time served. He pleaded guilty to two charges of driving while revoked, failure to appear and second degree property damage. Three charges of animal neglect and one charge of trespassing were dismissed.

The majority of the charges come from several incidents in March and April 2025.

Resisting Arrest

According to the probable cause statement, prepared by Ozark County Lt. Matt Rhoades, at 5:15 p.m. March 17, 2025, the officer was conducting uniform patrol in Pontiac in an attempt to arrest Mills for an active felony warrant. 

“As I approached his residence… I saw him outside of his vehicle. He saw my patrol vehicle and started walking towards the front door. I lost sight of him behind a second vehicle, and by the time I got to the front door of the residence, Deputy Ryan knocked and announced several times and secured it. I ran to the backyard to ensure he didn’t run into the woods behind the house,” Rhoades wrote in the report. 

The officers said that at the back of the house, he spoke with an individual through an open window. That person told the officer that Mills was in the living room. 

“I told him that he needed to have the suspect come to the front door where an additional deputy was waiting. The suspect did not come to the door,” Rhoades wrote. 

“We knocked and announced on the house multiple times, but he did not answer the door. We made entry into the house through a back door that was ajar and encountered a locked door into the living room from a smaller room. We made entry into the secondary door, and through our search, we did not find anybody in the living room or the first two bedrooms. We entered a hallway, at which time I was confronted by another male who stated that a portion of the residence was his own separate apartment. I saw the suspect’s wife standing behind the gentleman with her newborn baby, which was purportedly the suspect’s child.”

Rhoades said the man told the officers that they were not allowed inside his part of the apartment, and that Mills rented out the first half of the house where they had first entered. The man said Mills did not use the second part of the home.

Officers left the residence, established a perimeter and wrote a request for a second search warrant for the rest of the home. 

“While I was finishing a search warrant for the second half of the house, deputies were conducting a secondary search of the primary residence and located the suspect hiding in a closet above a shelf. We were at the residence making announcements that the suspect had a warrant and for him to come out to us multiple times for approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes while we waited for additional [officers] to be called in on their days off to secure the residence and search. The suspect was aware he had a warrant and intentionally hid from us to avoid being arrested on his warrant.”

Other cases

Shortly after being released from jail on March 21 for resisting arrest, Mills was once again arrested on March 31. According to the probable cause statement, Ozark County Deputy Hunter Ryan and Lt. Matt Rhoades responded to a report of a break-in at a small vacation cabin in Pontiac. What they found was equal parts baffling and disturbing.

The officers say that the cabin’s rightful owner called the sheriff’s department to report that a neighbor was interested in purchasing his Pontiac vacation cabin, and he’d given the neighbor permission to go look at the place. But, when the neighbor got there, he found the home occupied. He said, apparently, someone had moved in. 

The neighbor immediately called the cabin owner, who was shocked. He called the sheriff’s department. The owner said that he didn’t live at the cabin full time and only used it for trips to the lake. He said no one else should be using the cabin. 

Once on scene, officers spoke with the neighbor, who described the man he saw at the home. That description matched Mills, officers said, who they were already familiar with from past interactions. The officers’ report adds that Mills lives a few houses down from the vacation cabin.

As Lt. Rhoades approached the cabin, he said he noticed a large stack of split firewood piled up in the front yard. Rhoades said he was familiar with the property because he had to search around the cabin, and in the nearby woods, after Mills ran from officers attempting to arrest him on a previous warrant. 

The officers also noticed a new mailbox that was attached to a tree in the front yard with “BRANDn Mills” written in marker on the side. Beside it, a paper note was attached to the tree, which stated, “Adverse Possession Taken!!! You Are under Video Surveillance, No Warning ShotS!!!” 

In addition to the new signage, the cabin’s yard was piled up with things in the front, back and on both sides, the report says. 

The officers knocked on the door, announced their presence and entered the home with their previously obtained permission from the cabin’s owner. 

“Inside, we found three large dogs that appeared to be malnourished. They were very thin, and one of the dogs had open wounds on its face that appeared to be consistent with the injuries sustained in dog fights. There was no water or food available to the dogs inside the residence where they were locked,” Rhoades wrote in his report. “There was a large amount of dog feces throughout the house. The dogs appeared to have destroyed a lot of the house.”

The homeowner, understandably unsettled by the squatter-turned-land-baron routine, requested Mills be prosecuted for the bizarre incident, particularly the property damage to his cabin, which included destroyed carpet and walls, as well as the air conditioning unit removed and disassembled. “The condition of the house was indescribable,” Rhoades wrote, referring those reading the report to several photos he took of the damage.

The officers locked the cabin, took down the sign and attempted to contact Mills at his house, a few doors down. Mills did not answer the door, the report says. 

The confrontation

The next day the officers were called back out to the same cabin after it was reported that Mills had returned and put his signs back up. Rhoades said when they arrived, the dogs were in the back yard, and his car was parked out front with the passenger’s door open - but no one was outside. 

Rhoades said he knocked on the door, and

Mills’ girlfriend stepped out. The girlfriend reportedly acknowledged that the dogs at the cabin were theirs, but she denied that they were without food or water. “I informed her that we needed to talk to [Mills], and she informed me that [he] would not be exiting the residence,” Rhoades wrote. “After some back and forth, Brandon decided to cooperate and came out.”

Once Mills exited the residence, he began arguing with the officers, saying they did not have the right to arrest him, the report says. Despite the argument, Mills was arrested without further incident. But the saga didn’t end there.

Another report

On April 29, 2025, the Ozark County Sheriff’s Department dispatch office received a call from a man who said his neighbor saw a subject walking around on his property while he wasn’t there. The man said he works out of town, and his neighbor told him a tan car was in his driveway and a man was walking around his house.

Deputy Ryan called the neighbor, who told the officer that he was driving home that day when he passed the house and saw the car parked in the drive of his neighbor’s home. He said he knew no one was supposed to be there, so when he saw a tall, slim man walking between the house and garage, he called the homeowner to let him know. 

Deputy Ryan asked the neighbor if he thought he could pick out the man in a six-person lineup. He said he thought he could.

Cabin wrecked

Meanwhile, Lt. Rhoades went to the man’s home and secured it, making sure there were no items stolen.  When they arrived, the back porch screen door was reportedly propped open, and there was a white metal cabinet that was open, as well as the crawl space to the attic. Lt. Rhoades checked the back door, and it wasn’t locked, just pushed closed, court documents say. Officers say upon looking inside, they found several footprints and three deer antlers laying in the floor, along with two baskets of stuff on the counters that appeared to be rummaged through. The back bedroom door was off the door frame from what appeared to be someone unscrewing the door from its hinges and removing it. The drawers to the dresser in the back bedroom were partly open and not closed fully. 

On April 20, 2025, Deputy Ryan returned to show the neighbor a six-man lineup which included Mills, along with five other similar looking individuals. The neighbor said he couldn’t be sure which one he saw. 

However, as the officer was walking out of the neighbor’s home, a tan car drove by on County Road 609. The neighbor looked up and said, “Well, that’s him right there in the car,” the report says. Deputy Ryan recognized the driver as Mills from previous cases. He jumped in his patrol vehicle and attempted to catch up to him. When he reached the vehicle, it was empty, and no one was around it. The deputy said the car was parked at Mill’s home. 

Knowing Mills’ history of resisting and fleeing, Deputy Ryan held position and called for backup, a Facebook post to the Ozark County Sheriff’s Department’s page further explained. A probable cause affidavit and search warrant were submitted and signed. 

While deputies waited for the warrant to return, a relative who also lived in the home, reportedly came out of the house to speak with officers. The relative quickly escalated the situation, arguing with Lt. Rhoades in the public roadway and refusing to comply with instructions to remain outside the containment area. When Lt. Rhoades tried to detain him, the man reportedly resisted and had to be taken to the ground to prevent escape. He was eventually handcuffed and arrested.

As that was happening, Mills reportedly emerged from the house—only to realize he’d walked directly into a trap. Spotting more deputies rushing toward the scene, officers say he turned and sprinted back into the home. But his escape route was already blocked: Deputies Jeffrey Lane and Vesa Phelan were stationed at the back door and quickly took him into custody.