By Paul Hamby
Billings Gazette, Mont.
BILLINGS, Mont. — Two jail inmates pleaded not guilty Tuesday to allegations of carrying out a plot to attack detention officers at the Yellowstone County jail.
Myron Scott Goes Ahead and Ashtin Zant Glen have been charged in Yellowstone County District Court with counts of attempted deliberate homicide and possessing deadly weapons while prisoners at a detention facility.
Both were in custody for previous violent crimes when they allegedly tried to stab two detention officers to death with improvised knives Saturday evening.
Goes Ahead showed a “complete lack of remorse,” in the alleged assault, Deputy Yellowstone County Attorney Hojae Chung said during his arraignment in court.
On June 22, a county deputy responded to an assault at Yellowstone County Detention Facility, which falls under the oversight of the Yellowstone County Sheriff’s Office. The deputy found two wounded detention officers, one of whom was bleeding from the back of his head. The investigating deputy allegedly recovered the weapons used in the attack: two toothbrushes fashioned into shivs.
How can a single corrections officer overcome multiple attackers? The video below discusses 12 recommendations COs can take in the event of an attack.
Security footage viewed by the deputy allegedly showed Goes Ahead and Glen standing near a stairwell in the jail moments before the two officers were injured. Goes Ahead pushed one of the detention officers into a corridor and started punching him in the face, according to charging documents. Goes Ahead then started stabbing the detention officer in the back of the head. While Goes Ahead was allegedly assaulting the officer, Glen came behind another detention officer, grabbed her, and started punching her in the back of the head, court documents said. Glen then allegedly tried to stab the officer with one of the shivs.
Two people assisted the detention officers, according to charging documents. One of them put Glen in a chokehold, rendering Glen unconscious. Another person pulled Goes Ahead away from the detention officers and the two brought Goes Ahead to the ground. Charging documents did not specify whether those who assisted the detention officers were inmates or staff, and jail administrators were not immediately available to comment.
Emergency crews took the officer who was stabbed to a local hospital where he was treated for wounds to his head and neck before being discharged, Yellowstone County Sheriff Mike Linder said in a statement published on Monday. The second injured officer was evaluated at the jail.
For years, YCDF has been chronically overcrowded, with the 434-bed facility consistently housing more than 500 inmates. Across the street from the Yellowstone County courthouse Tuesday morning, county commissioners confirmed the contract for the construction of a temporary holding facility.
The $6 million project is meant to hold those found to be a risk to the public, but not a severe enough risk to need supervision at YCDF. County commissioners approved the new facility to ease the pressure on detention officers forced to maintain a jail overflowing with people.
Prior to the latest charges, Glen was awaiting trial after being accused of putting a Lockwood man in the hospital with gunshot wounds, then leading law enforcement on a chase into Billings while at the wheel of stolen Subaru in November 2023 . That same month, police arrested Goes Ahead as a suspect in a shooting that left a Billings man and his baby boy dead.
Standing Master Brad Kneeland set Glen’s bail amount at $500,000 on Tuesday during his arraignment, and Goes Ahead’s at $1 million. The bond amounts will run concurrent to those set in the men’s previous criminal cases, Kneeland said.
If convicted of attempted deliberate homicide, Goes Ahead and Glen could be sentenced up to life in prison.
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