A 31-year-old Cheyenne man accused of stabbing his uncle multiple times and hospitalizing him has been bound over to Laramie County District Court.
According to preliminary hearing testimony, police responded to a stabbing in the 2400 block of Pattinson Avenue around 6:18 p.m. on Sunday, June 1.
“Upon arrival, officers located the victim, Michael Owens,” Detective Caresa Marino told the court. “He was bleeding from his torso area … on the bottom of the stairs to one of the apartment buildings.”
According to Marino, Owens was immediately taken to Cheyenne Regional Medical Center with life-threatening injuries and is still recovering.
She claims the suspect, Owens’ nephew Sterling A. Null, fled on foot before officers arrived, but was apprehended shortly after in the area of Jackson Street and Ridge Road.
Caught on camera
Marino claims one of the neighbors used his cell phone to record the stabbing.
“In the video you can see … Owens standing on the corner of Pattinson Avenue and Pineridge (Avenue) and … Null sprinting from about a block away … up towards (him),” said the reporter.
“Once he got maybe 10 feet or so, you can see (Null) extend his right arm back, you can see the knife in his hand, and then he aggressively and intentionally thrusted it into Mr. Owens’ torso.”
Marino claims Owens was stabbed five times: twice in the chest, twice in the abdomen, and once beneath his left armpit, which punctured his lung.
According to Marino, Null charged after his pregnant girlfriend, who was on the stairs, and a female visitor to Owens, who was on the top balcony area of one of the apartments, but both females were able to retreat into two separate apartments up at the top and lock the door.
“After that (Null) proceeded to run back down the stairs and … attempted to approach (Owens) again with the knife in his hand, but the neighbor who was filming the incident originally had grabbed his firearm,” according to Marino. “(Null) saw that, and at that point he took off on foot.”
Why did it happen?
Marino claims the whole thing began that morning. She claims Null was arguing with his girlfriend about living together and her feeling that he wasn’t “dad-ready,” and things got heated when Null’s mother disconnected his cell phone.
“(Null) got extremely upset over the cell phone being turned off, at which point he arrived on scene,” Marino told me.
“(In) another video from one of the neighbors down the street … you can see him travelling (in his grandmother’s car) at a high rate of speed,” she further noted. “It had just finished raining, so it was slick … and he crashed that vehicle into other family members’ vehicles, to include the victim’s.”
Marino claims Owens heard the crash and went down to check on Null, which is when Null began sprinting at him and stabbing him.
“(Owens) did say that he believed that if one of the girls would have made it down there first, they would have been the target of the attack,” according to Marino.
Null charged with attempted murder; bond set at $100,000 cash.
Null was later charged with attempted second-degree murder, and his bond was set at $100,000 cash.
Due to Null’s limited criminal history, his attorney requested that his bond be reduced to $20,000 at 10%, but Laramie County Circuit Court Judge Sean Chambers declined.
Null’s next court appearance will be for an arraignment in District Court.
Please remember that all suspects are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
