February 9, 2010 in News, City

Accomplice in stabbing death gets 2 years in prison

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The third and last defendant pleaded guilty today to charges stemming from his role in a fight that ended in the stabbing death of a Spokane man last year.

Christopher R. Harper, 28, had been charged with second-degree murder following the March 3 stabbing death of 19-year-old Michael “Mickey” Lyng. However, prosecutors agreed with assistant public defender Al Rossi to allow Harper to plead guilty to two felony charges of riot.

Superior Court Judge Annette Plese approved the deal and accepted Harper’s plea. As a result, Harper was sentenced to 24 months in jail, but that time will be cut in half because Harper will be credited for having already spent about a year in jail awaiting trial.

Harper offered no apology and simply asked Plese to follow the plea agreement. Last December, Plese accepted the guilty plea from Harper’s younger brother, 25-year-old Joseph T. Harper. Plese sentenced the younger Harper to about six years in prison.

Then last month, the other co-defendant, 28-year-old Robert T. Waters, 28, also pleaded guilty in connection to the same case. Plese sentenced Waters to five-and-a-half years in prison.

According to court records, Waters and the younger Harper both stabbed Lyng during a fight on March 3, 2009, that took place outside an apartment at 916 W. Augusta Ave. Witnesses said Christopher Harper was nearby but did not take part in the stabbing.

Rossi said he believed he could have won Christopher Harper’s acquittal. But if Rossi lost, Harper could have faced several more years in prison.

“I guess you are the least culpable of the three,” Plese told Harper in court. “I do believe this will be to your benefit so I am going to accept your plea.”

Also during the case, Rossi asked Plese to make sure that Harper would be allowed to now visit his new wife, 20-year-old Amie C. Schott.

The couple married while Harper was in jail and prosecutors had placed a no-contact order because Schott was accused of driving the Harper brothers away from the scene of the stabbing. Her trial for rendering criminal assistance is pending.

“The jail staff has been keeping her apart” from Harper, Rossi said. “I’m hoping that when we are finished that there won’t be a problem.”

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Three comments on this story so far. Add yours!

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  Scoutster on February 09 at 1:43 p.m.

  Don't forget, all you who want to crucify the mentally ill and those who serve them: Phillip Paul, the so-called “Insane killer Escapes from County Fair” has been incarcerated for 22 years! These guys will all be out by 2015 or so.

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  sixandseven on February 09 at 2:20 p.m.

  So scoutster..whats the connection? Please clue us in.

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  Scoutster on February 09 at 4:11 p.m.

  Well, let's see. If Paul had been processed thru the criminal justice system instead of the forensics system, he might have been enjoying cotton candy at the fair instead of being vilified as the WA equivalent of Charles Manson. He would still have murdered someone, he just would have been out enjoying the fresh summer air like most murderers. (Do you suppose there were other murderers at the fair that day? Oh, my!!!)
  The fact that the media had a field day on the back of this man, and made the entire community fear for their lives unnecessarily, just to sell advertising, should make people question our “news” sources. His “escape” was a non-issue. The media and police frenzy was the real story.
  Now, as for these fine young men, why do you suppose their sentences are what they are? Is it justice or is it class? Do you suppose if they had an argument with wealthy lady over a parking stall on the South Hill, and that led to her death, the sentences would have been what they are? You be the judge.

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