Jury goes for life in apartment murder case

Matthew Cunningham showed no emotion as the jury entered the courtroom Tuesday afternoon after two days of deliberating between life in prison and death for the 30-year old.

When the jury verdict of life in prison was read, Cunningham still showed no emotion, sitting quietly in a cream-colored suit between his two defense attorneys.

It was an anti-climatic end to the double-murder trial that began with opening statements Nov. 26.

According to one juror, Todd Kadjan, life instead of the death penalty wasn’t a simple decision for the jury of six men and six women.

“We went back and forth a number of times” before agreeing to life, Kadjan said.

The same jury had previously found Cunningham guilty of the first-degree murders of 28-year-old Katharine Spain and William Barker Junior, 35, along with two counts of aggravated assault and one count of burglary.

“We’re relieved they did the right thing,” said defense attorney Larry Blieden after the verdict was announced in court around 4:45 p.m.

Cunningham will be sentenced by Judge Sally Duncan on all five charges at 11 a.m. March 21 in Maricopa County Superior Court.

The stabbing death of Spain and Barker at the Andante apartment complex left even veteran police and prosecutors amazed at its brutality.

Authorities said that Cunningham, who was fired from his job earlier that day, was fed up with his life and when his roommate, Barker, said he would have to move out, he snapped. Cunningham took a kitchen knife and first attacked Barker, chasing him out to the apartment’s pool area where he stabbed the former Marine and father multiple times in front of witnesses.

Then Cunningham chased stunned neighbors until he came upon Spain, who tried to fight him off with her bare hands. Behind her closed apartment door police later found her then-2-year-old son, Marlon, curled up in the middle of his mother’s bed with a stuffed animal, crying.

According to the medical examiner, Spain was stabbed over 30 times after she stepped out of her apartment to see what the commotion was around 11:20 p.m. on Oct. 12, 2004.

The scene in the hallway was so horrific that the first police officer on the scene slipped from all the blood on the floor around Spain’s body.

During the trial, Cunningham’s mental health was a key element in the defenses case, with both defense and prosecution mental health experts agreeing that the former waiter suffered from a form of psychosis. But experts couldn’t agree if the voices Cunningham said he heard were due to a mental illness or due to his drug and alcohol abuse, which started early in high school.

Prosecutors had argued that it was Cunningham’s almost daily use of drugs and alcohol, since high school, combined with his frustration at life that resulted in the murder spree. Deputy County Attorney Mark Barry had asked the jury not to reward Cunningham with life but instead to reach a verdict of death by lethal injection.

But the jurors agreed with the defenses attorneys that Cunningham, while not meeting the legal definition of insane, had serious mental health issues that prevented them from giving the death penalty.

Kadjan said the jury tried to just focus on the evidence and not what their decision would mean when they initially found Cunningham guilty, but not legally insane; then agreed that there were enough aggravators to qualify him for the death penalty and then finally agreed there were enough mitigators to result in life instead of death.

The difference, Kadjan said, was that the jury agreed that while Cunningham’s mental state didn’t meet the legal definition of insane, he did meet the medical qualifications for having a serious mental illness.

During closing arguments Cunningham’s lead attorney, Joel Brown, had stressed to the jury that Cunningham was delusional at the time of the murders.

“Matthew Cunningham’s mental illness impaired his ability to action rationally,” Brown said.

No family members were present when the verdict was read, but Spain’s parents in Illinois, Bill and Pat Albu, did respond quickly to the news.

“Bill and I both think they came to the correct verdict and sentence. It won’t change our world, but it makes this chapter easier to close,” Pat Albu said by e-mail.

When sentenced, Cunningham could face a range of possibilities from a minimum of 25 years in prison before being eligible for parole to spending the rest of his life behind bars.

More Cunningham trial coverage:

Feb. 26 - Cunnigham gets life

Feb. 20 - Cunningham addresses jury (Video link)

Feb. 14 - Jurors nearing final verdict in Cunningham trial

Feb. 11 - Cunningham jury hears statements from victims' families

Feb. 6 - Cunningham Jury to deliberate sentencing Thursday

Jan. 31 - Cunningham guilty in apartment murders

Jan. 29 - Cunningham's future in jury's hands

Jan. 25 - Defense's closing arguments set for Monday

Jan. 11 - Cunningham’s illness not 'remarkably consistent’

Jan. 8 - Expert says Cunningham schizophrenic

Jan. 4 - Cunningham competent says judge

Dec. 21, 2007 - Defense finds challenge in proving Cunningham insane

Dec. 19, 2007 - Defense starts in Cunningham trial

Dec. 4, 2007 - Emotions high for victims’ families in Cunningham trial

Nov. 27, 2007 - Cunningham murder trial commences

Oct. 30, 2007 - Jury selection begins in Cunningham murder trial

April 3, 2007 - Mental status could delay murder trial