Man gets 18-year prison term in fatal stabbing
Assailant pleads guilty to manslaughter.
Kristopher COLUMBUS —
T. Amos claimed Wednesday he doesn’t remember fatally stabbing a woman and wounding her 7-yearold grandson in a Hilltop alley 18 months ago.
He conceded, however, that “the evidence supports the allegation ... I take full responsibility for my actions.”
Amos, 30, pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the death of Candy Arthurs, 45, and felonious assault for stabbing Jeremy Mullins in his shoulder.
Amos was sentenced to 18 years in prison by Franklin County Common Pleas Judge William Woods as part of a plea agreement that was negotiated to spare the Arthurs grandson, now 8, and his 10-year-old sister from testifying at trial.
Avoiding a trial was enough to get Amanda Gibson — the children’s mother and Arthurs’ daughter — to support the deal.
“The only reason I’m OK with this is so my son never has to see (Amos’) face again,” she told the judge.
Gibson dissolved into tears and cut short her statement after calling her mother “a very strong woman.”
Amos, who lived in the 200 block of North Wayne Avenue in the Hilltop, was roaming the neighborhood on the night of June 23, 2016, asking if anyone had seen his lost drone. Arthurs, who lived nearby on North Oakley Avenue, didn’t know Amos but agreed to help him look. She took along Jeremy and his then 8-year-old sister, Kourtnee Mullins.
They were in an alley in the 200 block of North Oakley when Amos pulled a knife and plunged it into Arthurs’ chest before using it to cut Jeremy, Assistant Prosecutor Elizabeth Geraghty said.
Arthurs fled with the children back to her home, where she collapsed on the front porch. She was taken to Mount Carmel West hospital, where she never regained consciousness and died six weeks later from the trauma to her heart, Geraghty said.
“I understand that no words can change or make right what I have done,” Amos said, reading from a letter of apology. “My actions took the life of a mother, grandmother ... and a kind, helpful woman who didn’t deserve to have her life end so soon. And for that I am sorry.”
Amos spent a year in prison after a conviction for child enticement in Hocking County in 2010 and 18 months in prison for failing to register as a sex offender in 2013.
But defense attorney Kyle Stoller said reports that Arthurs’ slaying occurred during a kidnapping attempt “are not supported by the facts ... It’s not something that’s easily explained. I think it’s best understood that Kris does suffer from mental-health issues ... He can’t fathom that he could have been in a state of mind or position to do something like that.”
Geraghty said the children were the only witnesses, and the motive for the stabbing remains unclear.