Teenager pleads not guilty in Arlee stabbings

POLSON — A 16-year-old Arlee boy has denied charges that he stabbed his stepfather to death and stabbed his mother and another man.

Nathan Butler pleaded not guilty in District Court in Polson Wednesday to charges of deliberate homicide, attempted deliberate homicide and assault with a weapon.

John Fisher was killed in the Nov. 12 attack, Dacia Vollin was critically wounded and another man, Theodore Perry, was stabbed with a pocket knife.

Prosecutors say the boy had been thinking about “hurting his mom and dad” in the hours before the attack and told investigators he stabbed the victims.

An hour and a half after the stabbings at an Arlee home, Butler was found by Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal Police hiding in the garage of another Arlee residence.

He is being held at a youth detention center in Missoula with bail set at $250,000.

District Judge C.B. McNeil ordered a psychological evaluation and scheduled an April 15 trial date.