A Wyoming judge reprimanded a 16-year-old for the fatal stabbing of a 14-year-old boy outside a mall as the victim defended his girlfriend in front of witnesses. On Friday, Natrona County District Judge Catherine E. Wilking sentenced Jarreth Plunkett to life in a state correctional facility for killing Bobby Maher last year.

Plunkett admitted guilt in May to charges of first-degree murder and aggravated assault and battery. Besides the life sentence, Wilking imposed an additional 10-year sentence for the assault. State law mandates that a minor serving a life sentence be eligible for parole after 25 years.

Judge Wilking addressed Plunkett directly during the sentencing, stating, “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 described Plunkett and his accomplice, 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 restrained the victim while Plunkett stabbed him, pleaded guilty last month to conspiracy to commit second-degree murder. His sentencing date is yet to be determined.

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.”