EPHRATA — A Coulee City teenager who is accused of fatally stabbing his twin brother is maintaining his innocence.

Shawn Wachter, 17, of Coulee City, pleaded not guilty on Monday in Grant County Superior Court to first-degree manslaughter. Wachter, who is accused of stabbing and killing his twin brother, Shane Wachter, appeared in court out of custody on Monday, as he was able post his previously established bail of $50,000. The trial date in the case has been set for May 17.

Wachter was arrested in the early morning hours of Feb. 19 after his mother contacted MACC Dispatch reporting Shane had been stabbed. Paramedics responded to a home in the 300 block of West Washington Street and started treating Shane, who was stabbed in his chest. Shane was taken to Columbia Basin Hospital in Ephrata and died from the stab wound.

Several people who were in the house when the stabbing occurred gave similar accounts of the events leading up to the stabbing. Shane’s girlfriend told investigators Shane came home from drinking about 2 a.m., rolled off his bed and called for Shawn to help him up.

She said Shawn refused to help Shane up and the two brothers started wrestling. The boy’s mother gave a similar account, stating her sons were fighting and her boyfriend was forced to break up the fight. She said when they were separated Shawn went into the kitchen and Shane followed. She claimed she witnessed Shawn grab a knife in the kitchen and arm himself.

“All I saw was Shawn with a knife and saw Shane had been stabbed. I saw Shane turn into the knife as Shawn was just holding it in one spot,” the woman told investigators.

The woman later told a detective she felt the stabbing was accidental. Shawn corroborated several of the details the witnesses gave to investigators. He claimed Shane initiated the physical confrontation the two had by pushing him first, so he pushed him back. He admitted to fighting with his brother in the past, but said Shane had never punched him and he believed his brother’s alcohol use played a role in the fight.

In the kitchen, Shawn said he grabbed a knife and jabbed his brother with the back of it “to get him away.” He claimed Shane was stabbed after he walked into the knife and he, Shawn, “didn’t purposefully push the knife into him,” according to court records.

The sheriff’s office detective who submitted the police report wrote Shawn did not appear to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol and his answers to questions were consistent with one another.

Richard Byrd can be reached via email at city@columbiabasinherald.com.