Rebeccah Kibler recalled the night a phone call summoned her to the hospital.
All the way there, she prayed for her son. She didn’t want to believe the doctor who said he was dead. She saw her son’s lifeless body.
“And I didn’t understand why,” Kibler said in court, facing William M. McCuan, the man who killed her 21-year-old son with a single stab to the neck.
In a plea agreement with county prosecutors, McCuan, 28, of Louisville, pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges of involuntary manslaughter, tampering with evidence and domestic violence in return for Stark County Common Pleas Judge Charles E. Brown Jr. imposing a 15-year prison term.
“I do, from the bottom of my heart, apologize for what happened,” McCuan said to Kibler and other members of Brian S. Myers’ family. “I didn’t mean for it to go that way.”
THE CRIME
McCuan stabbed Myers, of Louisville, once in the neck with a steak knife May 27. Myers ran to a nearby convenience store for help before collapsing.
The stabbing happened outside an apartment in the 6400 block of Louisville Street NE in Nimishillen Township, where McCuan’s former girlfriend, Tiffany J. Sherrod, and their daughter lived.
Myers and a friend where at the apartment when McCuan came over, said Assistant Stark County Prosecutor Dennis Barr.
A restraining order from a prior domestic violence incident actually barred McCuan from visiting the home.
According to witnesses, McCuan and Myers, who was dating Sherrod, exchanged words and Myers went outside while McCuan visited his daughter, the prosecutor said.
When McCuan left the apartment, he grabbed a steak knife. A few moments later, witnesses heard Myers yell, “You stabbed me,” although there were no witnesses to what happened just before the stabbing, Barr said.
After leaving the scene, McCuan gave his clothes and the knife to a friend who burned and then buried them. He also made statements that he had the knife because he had seen Myers grab a knife before exiting the apartment, although that was disputed by other witnesses and a second knife wasn’t found at the scene, Barr said.
NEGOTIATED PLEA
Defense attorney Wayne Graham said McCuan has stated that he didn’t intend to kill Myers.
Initially charged with murder, McCuan had faced a possible sentence of 15 years to life in prison until prosecutors amended the indictment to involuntary manslaughter after negotiations with the defense.
The felony domestic violence charge stemmed from an incident involving Sherrod a month before the killing.
The prosecutor said he didn’t believe McCuan killed Myers in self-defense, but if a jury accepted that argument at trial, McCuan would have gone free, and that was something the victim’s family didn’t want.
“They wanted to make sure, they wanted to guarantee that Mr. McCuan would spend a significant amount of time in prison,” Barr said.
‘TOOK THE SONG’
Several members of Myers’ family spoke in court.
They described him as a good person who was just getting started in life.
Kibler said she cries all of the time since her son’s death.
“You took my — you took the song from the bird,” she said, abruptly concluding her comments to McCuan. “I can’t really finish this because frankly you’re not worth my time.
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