Suspect in hatchet attack pleads innocent

A 68-year-old Kalispell man pleaded innocent Thursday to assault charges connected to an alleged hatchet and knife attack.

Jerome Hamous is accused of striking a 74-year-old neighbor in the back with a hatchet Aug. 20 during a dispute on Two Mile Road in Kalispell.

Later, Hamous allegedly threw a utility knife at a Kalispell Police Department officer and slit his own throat. Officers tased him, treated his wounds and transported him for a mental evaluation before he was booked into the county jail.

On Thursday, he wrote notes to his attorney and was almost silent as District Judge Stewart Stadler asked him if he understood the charges. His neck wound was covered by a white cloth.

“Not all of it,” his attorney Vicki Frazier said after apparently reading a note from Hamous.

He remains in jail.

An omnibus hearing is scheduled for Dec. 8.