A Wyoming judge upbraided a 16-year-old who fatally stabbed a 14-year-old boy outside a mall as the boy defended his girlfriend in front of onlookers. Natrona County District Judge Catherine E. Wilking on Friday ordered Jarreth Plunkett to serve life in a state correctional facility for slaying Bobby Maher last year.

Plunkett pleaded guilty in May to one count of first-degree murder and one count of aggravated assault and battery. In addition to the life sentence, Wilking handed down a 10-year sentence for the assault charge. State law requires that any minor sentenced to life in prison be eligible for parole after serving 25 years.

The judge spoke bluntly 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 reportedly said. “That’s how we used to do it back in my day.”

Prosecutors on Friday referred to Plunkett and his co-defendant, Dominique Antonio Richard Harris, as wild animals when they attacked and killed Maher on April 7, 2024.

“Like a pack of wolves hunting down their prey,” District Attorney Dan Itzen said, per Oil City News.

Harris, who held the victim down while Plunkett stabbed him, pleaded guilty last month to one count of conspiracy to commit second-degree murder. His sentencing hearing has not yet been scheduled.

As Law&Crime previously reported, Harris and Plunkett had been in a confrontation with Maher at a local park about two weeks before the fatal stabbing. Two days before the murder, the defendants encountered Maher’s girlfriend and his friend, during which Plunkett reportedly asked the friend if he “wanted to pay Bobby’s blood debt.”

On the day of the murder, Harris and Plunkett had been playing hide-and-seek in a Best Buy in the Eastridge Mall in Casper, Wyoming, according to an affidavit obtained by local K2 Radio.

After the game, the two teens decided to steal knives from a store. Later, they came into contact with Maher’s girlfriend and began following her. When the pair saw Maher leaving a DICK’s Sporting Goods, violence erupted.

The verbal altercation began outside the sporting goods store, and a large group of people quickly assembled to watch.

Eventually, the assailants flanked the boy, the affidavit said. Then, Harris can be seen grabbing Maher “around the waist, lifting him off the ground, and slamming him down with great force on his left side.”

The death blows came quickly after, police said.

“Dominique [Harris] is seen holding (Maher) while Jarreth [Plunkett] jumped in,” police wrote in a probable cause affidavit — referring to 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.”

Footage of the attack played during a prior court appearance showed Maher being stabbed before getting to his feet, taking a few steps toward the mall, and then collapsing.

Harris previously admitted to holding Maher down, but told police he was only doing it “to make sure the fight was over.”