CASPER — A 19-year-old Casper man who apologized for stabbing his former 17-year-old friend five times on March 21 faces eight to 10 years in prison following his sentencing Thursday in Natrona County District Court.
Evan Jason Kirkendall appeared in Judge Catherine Wilking’s court beside his attorney Clay Simpson for the sentencing hearing. He pleaded guilty in October to an aggravated assault and battery charge that stemmed from the incident.
As part of his sentencing argument, Natrona County Chief Deputy District Attorney Blaine Nelson played three videos for the court, taken from the day of the stabbing that had audio and video from the perspective of the front porch of Kirkendall’s home.
Nelson also introduced the victim’s mother, Ashleigh Humphrey, who said her son will have the scars from the attack for the rest of his life and continues to be traumatized by the event which punctured both lungs and damaged his liver.
“He’s going through a lot,” she said. “He truly believed he was going to die.”
Humphrey recounted how she was called at work and told to go to the hospital. There she found her son with the stab wounds and injuries that were so bad it visibly affected those who witnessed him. She said he had two chest tubes placed in his lungs because both were punctured.
She said that Kirkendall and her son had been friends, and that he stalked her son and threatened his younger brother.
“I watched the video of you attempting to take my son’s life,” she said. “He once considered you a friend … do you realize how close you came to murdering my son?”
Nelson told the court that Kirkendall and the victim had fallen out over a girl who had once been Kirkendall’s girlfriend and was being dated by the victim. He said Kirkendall used the victim’s brother to “lure” the victim to his house and that the confrontation was planned.
Nelson said Kirkendall had reached out “lure” the victim by insulting his girlfriend during a phone conversation with the victim and then telling a friend of the victim “why don’t you show up.”
“That was a solicitation to a fight,” Nelson said.
Video Outside Home
Video played in court shows some teens arriving at Kirkendall’s home prior to the victim pulling up. When the victim arrives at the door, Kirkendall can be heard inside calling the victim a profanity and telling him to come inside. There, Kirkendall tells him multiple times “get the f— out of my face.”
He and the victim come out the door and go down the steps. As the victim is seen with other teens around heading for a car, Kirkendall rants into his home’s SimpliSafe camera and can be heard saying, ‘I’m calling 911.'”
Nelson said the victim was “baited” to go inside the home. He said Kirkendall following his arrest was heard “bragging how he lured him over for the event.”
“This is not a question of self-defense at all,” Nelson said. He told Wilking he initially was going to ask for seven-to-10 years for the crime, but after hearing the victim’s mother in court was asking for eight-to-10 years in prison.
Simpson told the court that his client was “remorseful” and was suffering from PTSD at the time of the stabbing due to an event a few weeks earlier in Kirkendall’s home where people he thought were friends beat him up.
Kirkendall wants to be a “beneficial, useful member” of the community and since the incident has enrolled in high school and is working to get his high school diploma, Simpson said. He asked the judge to consider a three-to-five-year suspended prison sentence with a recommendation for the state’s youthful offender program.
An Apology
Kirkendall apologized to his victim’s mother in the courtroom and to the victim as well.
“I am sorry for the pain I have caused you,” he said. “I understand I have to hold myself accountable and I am extremely ashamed of what I have done and my actions.”
He told the judge that a few weeks before the stabbing three people “busted down my door” and beat him up while he was sleeping and he had a CT scan to check if he had injuries to his brain. He said that he bought the knife following the incident.
Kirkendall, who had close cropped hair and was wearing glasses looking nothing like he did on the video, told the court that his time in jail has caused him to think.
“I do not want to go down this path,” he said.
In a letter in the court file, Kirkendall wrote to Wilking, telling her he “had come to realize that the most valuable lessons in life are learned through growth, responsibility and a chance to change.”
“I don’t want to waste any more of my life in the system,” he wrote. He asked for an opportunity to “show that I respect and can follow the law.”
Wilking said that she had reviewed the photos showing the injury to the victim and had reviewed the videos. She said she also received letters of support for Kirkendall.
The judge said she considered the victim’s mother’s statement “compelling.”
Wilking told the courtroom that the legal system “struggles” to understand the youth violence in Casper and does not understand why the youth “do not think about their illegal actions and consequences” to those actions.
The judge said she grew up in Casper, and in her era, the youth settled issues with fights without weapons.
She said Kirkendall had pleaded “cold” to the crime without a plea deal and that he was taking responsibility for his actions.
“I would decline the recommendation for the youthful offender program,” she said. “It’s not appropriate for the level of violence.”
She then sentenced Kirkendall to eight to 10 years in prison and gave him credit for 209 days served.
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
