Suspects in 2023 shooting may not communicate, judge says

Melissa Nicole Malmsteadt

Melissa Nicole Malmsteadt

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In a ruling issued on Monday, East Fork Justice of the Peace Laurie Trotter prohibited contact between the two people accused in the August 2023 murder of 43-year-old Carson City resident Paul Adam Mulkey.

Trotter wrote in her decision that Melissa Nicole Malmsteadt, 42, and Larry Allen Arnold, 48, may not have contact either directly or through anyone law enforcement can reasonably establish is a member of the Vagos Motorcycle Gang “to avoid collusion between witnesses and defendants.”

Malmsteadt is being held without bail in Douglas County Jail. She appeared in court on Friday morning with attorney Max Stovall. Codefendant Larry Allen Arnold, 48, remains in custody in North Dakota.

Prosecutor Ric Casper presented texts and phone calls on Friday between Arnold and a fellow Vagos Motorcycle Club member seeking to communicate with Malmsteadt in custody.

Defense attorney Max Stovall objected to the introduction of the texts and phone calls and said he hadn’t had sufficient time to review them before they were played in court.

“I’ve never heard an argument for prior restraint where the presented is ‘Tell her I love her,’” he said. “My client alleges they are engaged. That’s not code. It’s two people telling each other they love each other.”

According to Casper, Arnold is married to another woman in North Dakota and told the go-between that he shouldn’t mention Arnold’s actual wife or his mother and to tell her he was in North Dakota on club business.

Casper said he believed Arnold’s concern was that Malmsteadt might choose to cooperate with the state.

The evidence in the case is circumstantial based on an investigation by Douglas County Sheriff’s investigators conducted over the course of more than a year.

That included surveillance of the couple beginning shortly after Mulkey’s body was discovered by a passer-by behind the wheel of his Toyota Matrix on Aug. 14, 2023.