A 23-year-old Fremont County man who stabbed a 14-year-old boy to death during a brawl last August was sentenced Monday to between 30 and 40 years in prison after pleading guilty to second-degree murder.
That reflects a plea agreement Alejandro Behan, who was 22 during the stabbing on Honor Farm Road just north of Riverton, established months prior to his Monday sentencing hearing in Fremont County District Court.
In orange jail scrubs with his face mostly shrouded by his below-shoulder-length hair, Behan sat in the court hearing next to his counsel, public defense attorney James Whiting.
He kept his head slightly bowed throughout the hearing, and shook his head “no" when the judge gave him the opportunity to speak.
Behan had already confessed publicly to the stabbing during a January hearing at which he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.
Whiting said Behan had asked, however, that the attorney convey his apologizes to the family, friends and community of the victim, 14-year-old Draven Addison, as well as to Behan’s own family, friends, and community.
Behan has amassed 222 days’ credit for time served in jail during his prosecution.
In addition to the prison sentence, Fremont County District Court Judge Jason Conder ordered Behan to pay $500 in public defender fees. Whiting had said the public defender fee was billed at $1,000, which Conder called well earned. But the judge waived Behan’s burden to pay the other $500 due to inability to pay it. Conder also ordered Behan to pay normal court costs and fees.
Addison’s family did not ask for restitution, Fremont County Attorney Micah Wyatt said.
Neither Behan’s family nor Addison’s appeared in court Monday.
The case’s “one overriding theme” is tragedy, said Wonder.
“As I look out on a near-empty courtroom, I’m speechless,” he said.
The only people in the courtroom besides Behan were state personnel, security and “the newspaper,” the judge added.
Brawl
Court documents describe the fatal altercation as a brawl between people who had been feuding the night of Aug. 22-23 via Snapchat.
At of his change-of-plea hearing in January, Behan described it this way: “I overheard there was going to be a fight, like around 3 or 4 in the morning.”
He heard the other fighters were going to have knives, and he grabbed a steak knife from the home on Honor Farm Road where he’d been, he said.
“When I got there, they were fighting, and it looked like it was escalating a little too much to me, and I thought knives were going to be brought back out again,” he said. “So I stabbed a guy in the back.”
During the fight, Behan “observed what he believed was a knife in (Addison’s) back pocket,” says an evidentiary affidavit by Fremont County Sheriff’s Detective Anthony Armstrong.
Behan told investigators that summer that he “poked” Addison in the back with a knife “to protect his family members,” the document says.
Then he threw the knife in a nearby yard, where it was later found, the affidavit adds.
‘Horrible’
“There is no perfect number” for a sentence in this case, but the plea agreement is appropriate, Conder said Monday.
The evidence doesn’t support first-degree murder, which would have carried a sentence of life in prison or the death penalty, the judge said.
When not restricted by a plea agreement second-degree murder carries a penalty of between 20 years and life in prison.
“Horrible” circumstances goaded Behan’s childhood, Whiting told the court.
Conder acknowledged that, relating from the pre-sentence investigation that Behan had to take care of his younger siblings at the age of 7, and the people who were supposed to be taking care of him were either “drunk or high.”
Behan’s grandmother helped him for a while, but then she died. Behan dropped out of high school to take care of his family and was unable to get a GED during COVID-19, said Conder.
The judge noted that Behan has voiced an interest in electronics and may be able to become an electrician someday. He voiced a hope that Behan will find ways to grow and improve.
There’s no way to restore Addison to life ever, nor Behan to society for many years.
But, said Conder, “the only thing that could lessen this tragedy is if you went forward and learned something from this, to come out a better person.”
As for Wyatt, he voiced some turmoil over the plea agreement, saying an earlier version had contemplated a longer sentence.
The crime was tragic, said Wyatt. He cast it as a combination of crowd momentum, stupidity and substance use. Behan, however, doesn’t have much criminal history.
Wyatt was the juvenile-defendant prosecutor before he took his post as the county’s top prosecutor, and he knew Behan in that capacity when he was a kid, said Wyatt.
“This is someone who could become a productive member of society,” Wyatt said, adding this sentence is calculated in part to rehabilitate Behan, along with the other purposes of sentencing.
Draven
Addison’s obituary says he grew up in Casper, attended elementary school there and moved with his family to Riverton in 2022.
“He was a sweet and kindhearted young man who loved life, nature, and his family deeply,” the obituary says.
It says he loved music across a spectrum from heavy metal to oldies to Frank Sinatra, as well as video games, animals, and spending time outdoors.
“He found joy in the rain, butterflies, and all of God’s creation,” the obituary says. “Draven will be remembered as a gentle, loving, and joyful young man who brought light to all who knew him.”
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
