Evergreen man gets 50 years for attack

The Daily Inter Lake

An Evergreen man who tried to kill his estranged wife while she was sleeping has been sentenced to 50 years in Montana State Prison.

Alan F. Combs, 36, will serve 30 years for felony aggravated burglary and 20 years for felony assault with a weapon, District Judge Stewart Stadler decided Thursday.

Combs originally was charged with attempted deliberate homicide, but in June he pleaded no contest to an amended charge of assault with a weapon, along with the aggravated burglary charge.

In June 2004, Combs broke into his wife's home on Mountain View Drive, slashed her wrist with a razor and threatened to cut her throat. He fled when a child interrupted the attack.

His wife survived.

Authorities issued a national alert for Combs. He was arrested in a Utah restaurant after he called the Flathead County Sheriff's Office and said he wanted to give himself up.

Officials maintained Combs' attack on the woman was premeditated because he had told children in the house to be in bed by 10 p.m. and warned them not to sleep in the same room as the victim.

Combs' wife had a restraining order against him.

According to sheriff's office documents, "the defendant pinned her down on the bed, had her arm outstretched, and she felt a slice through her wrist. The defendant also put his hand over her mouth and nose so she could not breathe" while she struggled. "The defendant told her that she was not going to win this time."