Crime and Courts

Teen accused of fatal Arlee stabbing enters plea

Posted: Nov 21, 2012 10:02 AM by MTN News
Updated: Nov 21, 2012 10:21 AM

POLSON - The Arlee teenager who is accused of a triple stabbing that left one man dead and two others injured on November 12 appeared in a Lake County courtroom Wednesday morning and entered a not guilty plea.

Nathan Adam Butler, 16, was in a Polson courtroom to hear the charges against him during his arraignment.

Court documents state Butler told authorities he retrieved a green handled knife from the kitchen a few hours prior to the stabbing and had been thinking about hurting his mom and step dad.

Butler said was waiting for his mom, Dacia Vollin, in his room with the intent to stab her, and at the time, he "wanted them dead."

Butler told prosecutors he ambushed his mother as she opened his bedroom door, stabbed Vollin in the throat with a green handled knife. She cried out for help, and Butler continued to stab Vollin.

John Edward Fisher, 51, Butler's step dad, came to the aid of Vollin, when the defendant went to the kitchen to retrieve another knife and then stabbed his stepfather with the long knife, until the blade broke off. Butler then pulled out a third knife, a pocket knife.

Fisher died after the attack, while a third person, Theodore Perry, was stabbed with a pocket knife when he entered Butler's bedroom.

Butler has been charged with deliberate homicide and attempted deliberate homicide and remains in the Missoula County Detention Center where he's being held on $250,000 bail.