Spotted Blanket admits to stabbing

A Polson man admitted to stabbing another man in the head. Dustin Lee Spotted Blanket, 38, entered a plea of guilty in Polson District Court March 27 to felony assault with a weapon.

The plea was entered as part of an agreement that recommends a Montana Department of Corrections commitment of 20 years with 15 suspended. The judge is not bound to the agreement.

According to charging documents that are based on Polson Police reports, on Dec. 7, 2023, law enforcement received a report of an apparent assault victim in the parking lot of the KwaTaqNuk Resort. The victim was found at the scene covered in blood and appeared to have been stabbed in the head.

He told the officers that he was at the Pier 93 gas station when Spotted Blanket punched him in the face. He said he went to the KwaTaqNuk and Spotted Blanket followed him and attacked him with a brown-handled knife with a shortened blade.

Images of the attack were captured on video surveillance at the resort, confirming the victim’s version of it.

Police quickly located Spotted Blanket and observed him “discard something in the grass.” It was a knife with a shortened blade that Spotted Blanket said didn’t have any blood on it. That turned out to be untrue and Spotted Blanket had blood on his hands and clothes.

Judge Molly Owen set sentencing for May 15. Spotted Blanket remains in the Lake County Jail with bond set at $50,000. He had served 112 days as of the change-of-plea hearing on March 27.