Leslie Goss, 55, appeared in court on July 20 on an amended charge of deliberate homicide in the June 24 downtown stabbing.

The stabbing victim, Gabriel Parker-Carlson, died of his injuries on June 28.

Goss was initially charged with a felony count of assault with a weapon and Arlyn Castro, 43, was charged with a felony count of criminal possession of dangerous drugs.

Castro is being held at the Cascade County Adult Detention Center.

Goss entered a plea of not guilty to the new charge and not true to the state’s motion for revocation in a previous case.

A jury trial is currently scheduled for November for the homicide charge, but that date will likely change.

Goss charged with homicide following victim’s death in June 24 downtown stabbing

Stephanie Fuller, the deputy county attorney prosecuting the case, asked Judge Elizabeth Best to increase his bail to $1 million on the upgraded homicide case.

She said Goss had a lengthy criminal history, including a conviction last year in a case before Best, during which he was noncompliant with court orders.

Fuller said it appears that Goss has a knack for drinking and becoming violent, especially when it involves a significant other.

In 2025, he was convicted of criminal endangerment for shooting at a vehicle containing his girlfriend and another man in 2023.

Molly Woodman, a local defense attorney representing Goss during the hearing, said that he’s been sitting in jail for a month and cannot bond out.

He’s been held in the Cascade County Adult Detention Center on the $50,000 bond set with his initial assault with a weapon charge, plus a $50,000 bond in the revocation.

Woodman said whether the bond was $1 million or $100,000, “he’s not going anywhere” and that $1 million was “excessive.”

She said she understood the seriousness of the charge and Goss’ criminal history, but with a place to live and some family in Great Falls, she didn’t believe he was a flight risk.

Best said that under the circumstances of the case, $1 million is “appropriate and reasonable.”

She said it was clear from Goss’ history that he has an inability to follow court conditions and is a “deep risk to community safety.”

In July 2025, Goss was sentenced to 10 years at Montana State Prison, with all time suspended. He received credit for 241 days of time served before sentencing.

After the June 24 stabbing incident, Montana Probation and Parole filed a notice of violation for Goss for:

• the new charges in the June 24 stabbing
• having a knife when he was prohibited from having weapons,
• failing to contact his probation officer since March
• not reporting that he was arrested on May 18 for new, misdemeanor counts of partner/family member assault and obstructing a peace officer; or three citations for criminal trespass from January through April.

Best said an evidentiary disposition hearing was set for August on the revocation.

In a violation report filed June 25, a probation and parole officer wrote that Goss has failed to adjust to supervision.

He was part of a cognitive behavioral program and a victim impact group at the Great Falls Pre-Release Center but terminated for attendance issues.

When Goss was identified as the suspect in the downtown stabbing, probation and parole officers gathered information to write a violation report, learning that he’d been in jail for new misdemeanor counts of PFMA and obstructing a peace officer, and three citations for criminal trespass in January and April.

Goss had not reported those arrests or citations to his probation officer.

In the PFMA case, Goss allegedly dragged the victim into a residence, then locked the door in view of responding officers, according to the probation violation report.

The 2025 felony conviction was Goss’ fifth, according to the probation report, and his most recent Montana Offender Reentry and Risk Assessment “classified him as a ‘very high’ risk to reoffend, indicating that he has most, if not all, major criminogenic needs. Many of the needs are chronic, severe and longstanding. Offenders who receive this classification require the most intensive interventions to support behavior change and require the highest levels of supervision.”

He has a history of violent assaults dating back to 1989, according to the probation violation report.

“Goss continues to engage in criminal activity which seriously jeopardizes members of the public. The fact that he has failed to inform his supervising officer of his ongoing criminal activity shows that he has no regard for the conditions imposed upon him by Judge Best. The community would be safer if Goss remained incarcerated,” the probation officer wrote. “If the court finds Goss in violation, I request that his sentence is revoked and that he be sentenced to 10 years to the Montana State Prison, with none of that time suspended.”

In the June 24 downtown stabbing case, a Cascade County sheriff’s deputy was patrolling around 12:20 a.m. June 24, headed eastbound on the 600 block of Central Avenue when he saw a group of people and what appeared to be a fight.

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The deputy activated his emergency lights. The deputy saw a male in a white shirt run from the scene and pursued the male, later identified as Parker-Carlson, who did not follow the deputy’s commands.

The deputy realized that Parker-Carlson was bleeding and began providing medical aid, according to court documents.

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Additional law enforcement officers arrived on scene, and at one point, a GFPD officer asked Parker-Carlson who stabbed him, to which he answered that he did it to himself and didn’t answer when officers asked again.

Parker-Carlson was transported to Benefis Health System.

Parker-Carlson was convicted by a jury on June 23 of misdemeanor partner or family member assault. He was acquitted on charges of felony assault with a weapon and strangulation of a partner or family member.

His charges were from a Feb. 2 incident with a woman he was accused of hitting with a hammer, causing injury to her face and arm, choking and biting her. At the time, he was a registered violent offender with convictions in federal court for aggravated assault and strangulation of a family member and a probation violation on that charge, as well as misdemeanor assault and PFMA charges, according to court documents.

Officers identified others present in the groups involved, which included:

• Arlyn Castro
• Gabriel Despaigne
• Alethia Ironshirt
• Travis Standinghorn

Castro, Despaigne, Ironshirt and Standinghorn were interviewed.

Standinghorn is the father of Geronimo Standinghorn, 14, who remains in the Cascade County Juvenile Detention Center.

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He is charged with the November 2024 gang-related shooting near the McDonald’s and Phoenix Apartments on 10th Avenue South.

The juvenile Stanginhorn was out on bond until he allegedly assaulted his father on June 21.

Through interviews, detectives learned that Goss was going through a bad breakup with Ironshirt.

On the night of the stabbing, Goss and Standinghorn were walking around downtown and Goss was looking for Ironshirt.

When he saw her walking with the other group, Goss went up to them and got into an altercation with Parker-Carlson, according to court documents.

Goss was taken into custody at his residence on 10th Street North around 12:40 p.m. June 24.

In an interview with investigators, Goss said he was present at the altercation and that the other guys were beating him and Standinghorn.

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Detectives asked Goss if he had a knife, to which Goss said he didn’t know where it was or that he didn’t remember having a knife and couldn’t provide an explanation for the cut on his right thumb, according to court documents.

Detectives obtained surveillance footage from several points in the vicinity of the incident.

Footage from the City Bar on Central Avenue showed Goff and Standinghorn walking together and going directly to the other group on the south side of the intersection of Central Avenue and 7th Street.

The fight happened shortly after that and spilled into the roadway.

In the video, Goss is seen trying to pull Ironshirt away from the group and Parker-Carlson gets between them.

Goss and Parker-Carlson were in fighting stances. Goss gets into a low lunge stance and presses into Parker-Carlson with “a sharp single stabbing motion” to the left chest area with his right hand, according to court documents.

At 9:24 p.m. June 28, Benefis staff notified investigators that Parker-Carlson had died in the hospital.

Detectives obtained Parker-Carlson’s medical records and spoke with medical personnel who provided treatment, learning that the knife struck a coronary artery and that he was in cardiac arrest when he arrived at the hospital, according to court documents. Medical staff determined that the stab wound caused an obstruction to the heart’s ability to pump blood and was placed on life support.

Through the investigation, detectives learned that after the stabbing, but before his arrest, Goss had texted a bail bondsman, “I guess I might go to jail…they are saying something about homicide,” and asked the bondsman to post his future bond, according to court documents. He sent the messages while the High Risk Unit was outside his home.

Goss has previous convictions for assault, criminal trespass to a vehicle, criminal endangerment and two aggravated felony assaults.

The following is from our initial June 25 story.

An officer detained Castro after the incident and conducted a pat-down search, during which the officer found a folded piece of cardboard that contained a crystal-like substance that gave a presumptive positive for methamphetamine during a field test, according to court documents.

Castro was taken to the GFPD, where he agreed to speak to investigators, according to court documents.

Castro told officers that he is a “shot caller” for the Bloods and was with Parker-Carlson and another male when two men they hadn’t seen before arrived, saying Parker-Carlson owed them a debt and they wanted to fight, according to court documents.

Castro told investigators that he’d given the “green light” for Parker-Carson and the other male with them to fight the newly arrived men.

Castro told investigators he said he saw one of the males stab Parker-Carlson.

He said a woman had been with them and the man who stabbed Parker-Carlson was her man, which he said could be Goss, according to court documents.

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The woman was on the sidewalk when the deputy arrived and was visible in the dashcam footage. She stepped between the deputy and Parker-Carlson while the deputy was giving commands, then left the scene, returning around 1:56 a.m. when she was transported to GFPD.

She told investigators that Goss was her boyfriend and they lived together in the 400 block of 10th Street North.

A downstairs neighbor told officers that she had returned home around 1 a.m. saying “he beat me up again” and showing a bruise on her stomach. The “he” is believed to be Goss, according to court documents, and they had reason to believe he was inside their residence.

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A witness called police around 9:30 a.m. to report an attempted entry to the residence and responding officers saw the blinds move and a bicycle Goss was known to ride was in the entryway, according to court documents.

Another witness reported seeing a female yelling at someone inside the residence around 1:17 a.m.

Officers obtained search warrants and activated the High Risk Unit to apprehend Goss at the residence.

In custody, he told officers that he’d argued with his girlfriend and went for a walk downtown where he met a male he didn’t know. While they were walking, a group of males started a fight with them and his girlfriend was with the other group.

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Goss told investigators that he fought with one of the males who was punching him and when police arrived, they ran away.

Officers obtained video footage of the incident, according to court documents, which showed:

• Goss and another male walk west from 8th Street on the north side of Central Avenue and cross at the intersection of 7th Street and Central
• the other group, including Parker-Carlson is on the southwest corner of 7th Street and Central
• Goss and the other male cross at an angle, not using the crosswalk, to reach the group, and begin fighting immediately upon contact
• Goss is seen fighting with the victim; his right arm drops, after which he turns and walks away, immediately followed by the appearance of the deputy’s emergency lights.

Another camera angle shows Goss’s face, identifying him as the suspect in the stabbing, according to court documents.