A Wyoming judge chastised a 16-year-old for fatally stabbing a 14-year-old boy outside a mall while the boy defended his girlfriend in front of witnesses. Jarreth Plunkett was sentenced to life in prison on Friday by Natrona County District Judge Catherine E. Wilking for the murder of Bobby Maher last year.
Plunkett pleaded guilty in May to first-degree murder and aggravated assault and battery. In addition to the life sentence, Wilking imposed a 10-year sentence for the assault charge. Under state law, any minor sentenced to life in prison is eligible for parole after 25 years.
The judge was blunt when she addressed Plunkett’s actions during the sentencing hearing, saying, “Stabbing someone to death is the most cowardly thing I can imagine,” according to a courtroom report from the Casper Star-Tribune.
“They could have duked it out at the mall,” Wilking allegedly stated. “That’s how we used to do it back in my day.”
Prosecutors on Friday described Plunkett and his co-defendant, Dominique Antonio Richard Harris, as wild animals who attacked and killed Maher on April 7, 2024.
“Like a pack of wolves hunting down their prey,” District Attorney Dan Itzen told Oil City News.
Harris, who pinned the victim down while Plunkett stabbed him, pleaded guilty last month to one count of conspiracy to commit second-degree murder. His sentence hearing has not yet been scheduled.
According to Law&Crime, Harris and Plunkett had a confrontation with Maher at a local park about two weeks before the fatal stabbing. Two days before the murder, the defendants met Maher’s girlfriend and a friend, and Plunkett allegedly asked the friend if he “wanted to pay Bobby’s blood debt.”
According to an affidavit obtained by local K2 Radio, Harris and Plunkett were playing hide-and-seek in a Best Buy at the Eastridge Mall in Casper, Wyoming, on the day of the murder.
Following the game, the two teenagers planned to steal knives from a store. Later, they made contact with Maher’s girlfriend and began following her. When the two saw Maher leave a DICK’s Sporting Goods, violence broke out.
The verbal altercation started outside the sporting goods store, and a large crowd quickly gathered to watch.
The assailants eventually flanked the boy, according to the affidavit. The video then shows Harris grabbing Maher “around the waist, lifting him off the ground, and slamming him down with great force on his left side.”
Police said the fatal blows came quickly after.
“Dominique [Harris] is seen holding (Maher) while Jarreth [Plunkett] jumped in,” police wrote in a probable cause affidavit, citing a cellphone video. “Dominique appeared to strike (Maher) in the face, while Jarreth is observed swinging the knife in a downward motion, stabbing (Maher) twice.”
Maher was stabbed before standing up, taking a few steps toward the mall, and collapsing, according to video footage shown during a previous court appearance.
Harris previously admitted to holding Maher down, but told police he was only doing so “to make sure the fight was over.”
