Man Accused in Fatal 2022 Columbia Falls Stabbing Pleads Not Guilty
Zain Alexander Rayne Glass entered the plea during an arraignment hearing in Flathead County District Court on Feb. 29
By Maggie Dresser
A 24-year-old Flathead County man accused of fatally stabbing his sister’s boyfriend in Columbia Falls in September 2022 pleaded not guilty Thursday to a felony count of deliberate homicide.
Zain Alexander Rayne Glass entered the plea during a Feb. 29 hearing in Flathead County District Court before Judge Robert B. Allison.
The plea comes almost a year-and-a-half after Glass was arrested in the alleged stabbing following several months in the Montana State Hospital. Shortly after Glass’s arrest in 2022, the defendant was deemed mentally unfit to enter a plea and was admitted on Nov. 10, 2022 to the state hospital where he was diagnosed with multiple disorders and began a treatment plan. During his time there, physicians conducted several fitness evaluations before he was transported back to the Flathead County Detention Center almost a year later.
Glass remains in the Flathead County Detention Center on a $500,000 bond.
In the initial evaluation dated Oct. 31, 2022, a doctor concluded Glass was “not capable of understanding the nature and object of the proceedings against him” and was “unable to assist in the preparation of his defense in a rational manner.”
Glass’s public defenders, Dianne Rice and Nick Aemisegger, last July requested that the case be dismissed, arguing their client remained unfit to proceed.
Doctors concluded earlier this year that Glass had regained fitness and Judge Allison ordered that court proceedings resume, records state.
According to charging documents, Glass was arrested on Sept. 21, 2022 after his sister reported that he stabbed her boyfriend, Lukas Davis, following a verbal argument in her bedroom. When Davis exited the room, Glass was standing in the hallway and stabbed him.
Glass’s sister then locked him out of the house and called law enforcement and a Columbia Falls Police Department officer arrived to find Glass standing in the yard with a knife in his hand. After he was ordered to drop the knife, he was handcuffed. He later told detectives during an interview that the stabbing “was an accident,” records state.
Authorities found Davis with a knife wound to his abdomen, according to documents. He was transported to Logan Health, where he was pronounced dead.
Glass is scheduled to stand trial on July 8. He faces a maximum sentence of 100 years in the Montana State Prison.