Jury finds Spokane man guilty of stabbing, almost killing man in north Spokane fight

A jury Thursday found a 45-year-old Spokane man guilty of first-degree assault with a deadly weapon after he stabbed a man multiple times with a knife, nearly killing him, earlier this spring in north Spokane.
Barclay D. Bennett is scheduled for sentencing Sept. 28 in front of Spokane County Superior Court Judge Michael Price.
Police officers were called around 7:50 p.m. April 12 to 6818 N. Atlantic St. and arrived to find Ralph Kinerson lying on the ground in front of the residence, according to court documents.
One officer located a stab wound to Kinerson’s chest and one below his armpit, documents said. Medics located a third stab wound on Kinerson’s “lower-left flank,” court records say.
Doctors told police Kinerson’s injuries were “extremely life-threatening and created a high probability of death,” documents say. Kinerson was in satisfactory condition later that week, according to a Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center official.
A friend of Kinerson’s told police she was hanging out with Kinerson at the Atlantic Street residence when there was a knock at the door. She followed Kinerson to the door and he opened it. She said Bennett, who she did not know at the time, was standing at the door trying to get inside. The men got into a physical altercation on the ground outside the residence, and Kinerson began to yell, “He’s stabbing me.” Bennett then walked off, the friend told police.
Another witness said she was next door cooking when she heard yelling coming from outside, documents said. She saw her neighbor, Kinerson, and Bennett wrestling on the ground and heard Kinerson yell, “I’m stabbed.”
Bennett told police something about Kinerson “falling on his own knife,” and said, “I told you guys he tried to cut me” and “I thought we (he and Kinerson) were pals, I thought we were tight,” according to documents.
Bennett said he was covered in pepper spray, and police said Bennett’s eyes were black and swollen.
In 1996, Bennett was charged on suspicion of keeping explosives in city limits after police say he left a bomb near a Coeur d’Alene elementary school. Coeur d’Alene police closed off Winton Elementary School and nearby Winton Park after people found an explosive device in a park gazebo.
Bennett told police at the time the bomb was not intended to hurt anyone and “I wasn’t out to blow anything up.”
Wrapped in gray duct tape, the device was made out of an empty cardboard salt container, gunpowder and a fuse, said Coeur d’Alene Police Capt. Carl Bergh. It appeared to have been lit but did not detonate.
Bennett told investigators he did not make the explosive device, but that another man gave it to him and he added the fuse. When it didn’t go off, he left the explosives in the park, he said.
The misdemeanor charge carried a maximum penalty of six months in jail. It was not immediately clear whether Bennett, who was 19 at the time, was found guilty of the charge. The charge could not be found on the Idaho Court Portal.