A man convicted of evidence tampering in a 2022 homicide case in Evergreen is back behind bars after a slew of alleged probation violations.  

Prosecutors filed a petition to revoke Joseph Michael-James Malinowski's suspended sentence in Flathead County District Court on Feb. 13. The 32-year-old is accused of using methamphetamine, drinking alcohol, getting arrested in Butte and associating with other individuals on probation without permission since he began serving the suspended sentence in November 2024. 

Malinowski was with Tanner Doyle White at 125 Flathead Drive in Evergreen on Jan. 17, 2022 when White shot and killed 42-year-old Luke Simpson with a 9 mm handgun. Responding officers found Simpson dead at the scene.  

A description of one of two vehicles that drove off prior to law enforcement's arrival put investigators on White's trail. He was arrested during a traffic stop in Columbia Falls later that month.  

White later told detectives that Simpson had taken his fiancé on a date prior to the shooting. He admitted to following Simpson to Evergreen and shooting him, according to court documents.  

Malinowski admitted weeks later to accompanying White and prosecutors subsequently accused him of driving Simpson's vehicle away from the scene. Malinowski struck a deal in July 2022 that saw him plead guilty to the tampering charge, admit a probation violation on a 2021 felony theft conviction and potentially testify in White's homicide trial. 

White, though, ultimately pleaded guilty to mitigated deliberate homicide and was sentenced in September 2022 to 35 years in Montana State Prison, where he remains.  

AFTER COMPLETING a state drug treatment program in the fall of 2023, Malinowski was transferred to a pre-release center in Butte. Completing his time there in August 2024, he began serving his suspended sentence in November of that year.   

By December 2025, Malinowski had found himself in hot water again. In a violation report filed in district court, Probation and Parole Officer Jerry Finley wrote that the 32-year-old tested positive for methamphetamine, amphetamines and cocaine on multiple occasions that month. He also admitted to drinking alcohol and smoking methamphetamine to a Montana Highway Patrol trooper at a truck stop on Dec. 25.  

And on Dec. 30, Butte Police officers arrested Malinowski while investigating a break-in on Low Street, according to the report. Malinowksi and another man, also on probation, were reportedly seen hooking a chain up to a gate and using a truck to pull it open, Finley wrote.  

"[Malinowski] has struggled being on community supervision," Finley wrote. "He struggles to maintain employment, residence and his illegal drug use has continued now for approximately 10 months." 

Finley recommended Malinowski return to the courtroom on the alleged probation violations and, if found guilty, see his suspended sentence revoked.  

Malinowksi is scheduled to appear before Judge Paul Sullivan in Kalispell on Thursday on the revocation proceedings. He remains in the county jail in the meantime. 

News Editor Derrick Perkins can be reached at 758-4430 or [email protected].