CASPER, Wyo. — The Casper teenager charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in the stabbing death of 14-year-old Bobby Maher at the Eastridge Mall on April 7 has pleaded not guilty in district court.
15-year-old Dominique Antonio Richard Harris had his arraignment before Judge Kerri Johnson on Wednesday, June 26. He is accused of body slamming Maher to the ground outside the mall before Jarreth Joseflee Sebastian Plunkett, 15, allegedly stabbed him twice. The encounter was captured on cellphone video.
Harris’s state-appointed public defender, Brandon Booth, told Judge Johnson that there was still a chance that his client may plead not guilty by reason of mental illness or deficiency, as Plunkett did at his arraignment last week. He said that decision would be reached by the time of the first pretrial status conference, which would be at least 30 days out.
The trial is currently scheduled for Sept. 23, what Judge Johnson called “a “placeholder” date. Booth said the exchange of evidence with the prosecution was still ongoing, but he currently had two terabytes of data to go through, much of it related to the interviews and cellphone data of the other juvenile witnesses.
Harris and Plunkett are presumed innocent unless proven or pleading guilty. Both face a maximum penalty of life in prison.
At the defendants’ joint preliminary hearing on April 18, Booth argued that there was no evidence to show that Harris planned to have the victim stabbed.
“I don’t think anyone in that group knew, perhaps not even [Plunkett] himself, that he was going [to use the knife] that day,” Booth said.
Harris was reportedly without guardianship and had been staying with Plunkett leading up to the encounter. Booth asked Casper Police Detective Tiffany Elhart at the preliminary hearing about their interview with Harris and his familiarity with Plunkett’s disposition.
Plunkett reportedly told Harris he was going to “gut that dude,” referring to Maher, a detail noted by Chief Deputy District Attorney Blaine Nelson at their initial appearance on April 8, the day after Maher died. The conspiracy charge requires that there be an agreement between individuals to carry out first-degree homicide and that at least one person carries out an overt act to complete it.
Harris is also charged with aggravated assault and battery for slamming Maher to the ground, as seen in the video.
The case record shows that Plunkett knew the victim from school and that Plunkett had been upset at perceived slights in the weeks leading up to the killing.
The victim’s girlfriend, his close friend and others were approached by the defendants in an alley two days before the mall encounter. A video of that encounter was also played at the preliminary hearing. In it, Plunkett demands to know where the victim “is at.” He is heard referring to the victim with racial slurs and asking the friend if he wants to pay “[Maher’s] blood debt.”
According to Elhart, Plunkett had reportedly made statements in the previous weeks about going to “shoot up” his ex-girlfriend’s house, an event that never came to pass. Plunkett had also reportedly been consuming alcohol the weekend of the killing.
“Could it just be teen slang and talking tough?” Booth asked Elhart.
The hearing began with discussion of how the victim and his friend went to the mall that day after their respective girlfriends called them, saying the defendants were following them around.
When Maher arrived, discussions within the group reportedly ran toward confrontation. Plunkett is accused of holding the knife to the chest of another boy in the group who tried to deescalate the situation, according to the police report. The whole group, including Maher, moved outside the west entrance to the Hibachi Grill. The encounter was filmed on a cellphone, and that video was played in court. It showed that Maher “clearly did not want to fight,” as stated in the police report.
Another male reportedly kicked Maher after the attack. Maher stood and walked away briefly before collapsing. A witness attempted CPR until authorities arrived around 1:45 p.m. The witness said the juveniles were pointing and laughing as they ran away, according to state prosecutors.
Plunkett and Harris, who had reportedly asked to borrow a bystander’s phone for a ride, were found by sheriff’s deputies minutes later in a nearby neighborhood. The knife was found in the snow near Outer Drive where the suspects said it would be, according to the report.
Investigators asked multiple witnesses about whether it was possible that Maher was summoned to the mall as part of a setup, and all denied it, according to the affidavit.
