Man pleads innocent to slashing wife

The Daily Inter Lake

A man accused of trying to kill his wife in her sleep last summer pleaded innocent on Monday.

Alan F. Combs, 36, will go to trial on charges of attempted deliberate homicide, burglary, and assault with a weapon.

He is accused of breaking into an Evergreen home on June 24 and slashing his wife's wrist while she was in bed. She survived the attack, which Combs reportedly ended when a child entered the room.

Combs fled. A day later, he turned himself in to authorities in Fillmore, Utah. He had called the Flathead County Sheriff's Office from Utah and detective commander Bruce Parish encouraged him to turn himself in.

Combs waived his right to protest extradition from Utah to Montana and returned willingly.

If convicted, he faces a sentence of up to life in prison.

He is represented by public defender Lane Bennett. County Attorney Ed Corrigan and Deputy County Attorney Katie Schulz are prosecuting the case. District Judge Stewart Stadler has set the trial for his March jury term.

Court documents describe a premeditated attack on the woman who was divorcing Combs and had a restraining order against him.

They say that Combs had told children in the house to be in bed by 10 p.m. on the night of the attack and specifically instructed them not to sleep in the same room as his wife.

In addition, Combs reportedly told another person that his wife is a heavy sleeper and would not hear him come in, and it would be "the perfect thing to do."

The woman called for help after she awakened to find Combs standing beside her, Parish said.

"[She] stated the defendant had cut her wrist and, when she tried to scream, the defendant told her to shut up or he would cut her throat," the document says. When a child entered the room, Combs fled.

The bloodied woman went to a neighbor's home and was taken to the hospital from there. She was treated for her injury and released.