CASPER, Wyo. — The 16-year-old Casper resident who fatally stabbed 14-year-old Bobby Maher at the mall on an overcast Sunday afternoon last year was sentenced to life in prison on Friday.
When Judge Catherine Wilking asked Jarreth Joseflee Sebastian Plunkett if he had anything to say before sentencing, he said, “No ma’am.”
Maher “could not be a more tragic victim,” Wilking said. “He had, by all accounts, a pure heart and a bright future, and he was ready to seize it. And that was stolen from him in an act of absolute cowardice.”
The Casper Police Department investigation found that Maher had gone to the mall on Sunday, April 7 because Plunkett and his co-defendant, 16-year-old Dominique Harris, were following his girlfriend around. Two weeks before, Maher reportedly called Harris and Plunkett “freaks” after seeing them both come out of a porta-potty at a park in Evansville.
Two nights before the homicide, Plunkett was reportedly drinking and ruminating about how he was going to “gut that dude,” according to the affidavit. He and Harris shoplifted kitchen knives from Target. In previous hearings, District Attorney Dan Itzen noted that Plunkett had nicked his finger testing whether the knife was sharp enough “to do the job.”
On Friday, Itzen recalled the cellphone video captured outside an east entrance to the mall that showed Maher being encircled by a group of juveniles and the moment that Plunkett and Harris attacked him.
“Like a pack of wolves hunting down their prey,” Itzen said.
Last month, Harris pleaded guilty to grabbing Maher by the waist and slamming him to the ground as Plunkett moved in with the knife, stabbing him twice in the abdomen and piercing his heart. Harris is facing 30–75 years in prison at sentencing for the amended charge of conspiracy to commit second-degree murder.
Wilking remarked Friday that Plunkett’s conduct belied not only cowardice, but also “fragility.”
“Casper’s never seen anything like him,” Itzen said. “His conduct changed this community, and not for the better. … There’s something we’ll never get back because he wants to be a little gangster and a thug.”
Two days before the stabbing, cellphone footage showed Plunkett and Harris approaching friends of Maher’s, and Plunkett is heard using racial slurs and asking who was going to “pay his blood debt.”
Plunkett and Harris wore balaclava ski masks during the attack, referring to them as “shiesties.” Harris’s public defender remarked during a preliminary hearing last year that the masks and references to “blood debts” were fixtures in the world of a particular rap artist popular among the defendants’ peers.
Wilking referenced victim impact statements in her remarks, including a friend of Bobby’s who’d had the knife held to his chest by Plunkett leading up to the murder. Plunkett will also serve nine to 10 years on that count of aggravated assault and battery.
No one spoke on behalf of the defense or the prosecution at the 9 a.m. hearing Friday.
Plunkett appeared in court in shackles. He spent much of the hearing slightly hunched over, sometimes shaking his shaggy blond hair. He and Harris have both distinctly developed physically since their initial appearances over 500 days ago.
“I believe Mr. Plunkett is redeemable,” said Curtis Cheney, his state public defender. “It’s hard for me to look at him as I know him and make sense of his actions.” Cheney said he took issue with the presentence report’s assessment that Plunkett showed a lack of remorse.
“He’s profoundly regretful and wishes he could take it back,” Cheney said.
Judge Wilking refuted that in her statements, saying Plunkett had been disruptive at the Juvenile Detention Center, effecting his transfer to the medical unit of the adult jail.
“There were credible reports that he was bragging about what he did,” Wilking said.
Wilking did say that Plunkett had done the right thing by pleading guilty and sparing both families the ordeal of a trial.
Both Itzen and Wilking noted that the April 7, 2024, murder of Bobby Maher had marked the beginning of a wave of high-profile violent crimes perpetrated by juveniles.
“This broke the innocence of the community and the state,” Itzen said while speaking to the media after the hearing. “What I hope is that this changes the conversation at the dinner table.”
Itzen agreed that substance abuse, lack of supervision and reverence for gang culture were themes shared among some of the cases.
Recalling 4-H livestock auctions and the extracurricular opportunities available through the school district, Itzen said he hoped parents would become proactive about connecting youth to positive and productive activities.
“Our community has so many great opportunities for kids to succeed,” Itzen said.
Changes to Wyoming law in 2013 mean that the parole board will begin reviewing Plunkett’s sentence after 25 years served. Plunkett has served 517 days since his arrest just minutes after the murder of Bobby Maher.
He and Harris are also jointly responsible for reimbursing $11,118 to state victim services. Itzen said that the victims services coordinators were “worth their weight in gold” for the vital role they played assisting families in this and other cases.