A local judge ordered that Elias Stump undergo a mental evaluation. On Aug. 1, Stump allegedly beat someone to a life-threatening point.
Elias Stump, Hill County Detention Center booking photo
District Judge Daniel Boucher ordered during Stump’s arraignment hearing Monday in District Court in Havre that a fitness to proceed evaluation be completed on the suspect.
Stump, who is being held on a $50,000 bond, pleaded not guilty to felony aggravated assault Monday via video from the Hill County Detention Center.
Montana law says if an evaluation determines that an inmate has a mental disorder, the administrator of the detention center can request the inmate to the nearest qualified mental health care provider or have him transferred to a private mental health facility, a behavioral health inpatient facility, or a hospital that can provide treatment.
According to court charging documents, on Aug. 1 Stump and another man were drinking vodka and watching the trains go by at a Havre railroad crossing near 22nd Avenue. The alleged victim told police that Stump “snapped” and attacked him. Stump, charging documents say, repeatedly jumped on the man’s chest with his knees. He also put his knee to the victim’s throat, restricting his breathing. A witness told police he saw a man matching Stump’s description jumping on the victim’s chest with his knees. Northern Montana Hospital staff told investigating deputies the victim could have been killed if the assault would have continued, documents say.
On Aug. 15, Stump’s attorney, Daylon Martin, filed a motion for examination to determine defendant’s fitness to proceed, asking to have his client’s mental condition evaluated based on his interactions with him on Aug. 7.
The public court document says Martin believes Stump has a metal disease and doesn’t understand “the proceedings against him nor is he lucid consistently enough to assist in his own defense.” A Stump relative said he been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, had been committed to the Montana State Hospital, and has been unmedicated “for some time.”
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