EVERETT — A homeless man was sentenced to more than 30 years in prison Tuesday for nearly killing a pizza delivery driver during a January car prowl.
Christopher Cowan, 35, had nothing to say before Snohomish County Superior Court Judge George Bowden decided on his sentence.
A jury late last month convicted Cowan of attempted second-degree murder, first-degree assault and robbery.
The victim, 40, was cut with a knife so deeply that his intestines were exposed. Cowan attacked the delivery driver after being surprised while going through the man’s car, which was parked outside a Domino’s Pizza restaurant in Edmonds.
Bowden gave Cowan the maximum under state sentencing guidelines.
“From what I know of the facts, that seems to be the minimum appropriate,” the judge said.
The victim didn’t know Cowan. The defendant nearly killed a man in an attempt to avoid capture for what initially was a misdemeanor car prowl, deputy prosecutor Craig Matheson said.
“The violence was gratuitous. It was unnecessary,” he said.
The injured man stumbled into the restaurant and held his internal organs inside while waiting for paramedics.
It was raining hard that night. The stabber left behind a hat and fled with paperwork from the victim’s car.
A police dog led Edmonds officers to a witness who said he saw a man running through his apartment complex minutes after the stabbing. The running man shucked his heavy coat. He also left behind paperwork that was taken from the delivery driver’s car.
The paperwork later yielded Cowan’s thumbprint, jurors were told. The witness also identified Cowan as the man he saw running through the apartment complex after the robbery.
Acting on a hunch, an officer checked a nearby convenience store. That led to a surveillance video of a coatless Cowan buying a roll of Mentos. He also left behind a pawn slip bearing his name.
When he was arrested a few days later, Cowan denied stabbing anyone and claimed to have been with friends at a nearby hotel.
Cowan’s public defender, Jennifer Bartlett, told jurors that police got the wrong man and ignored evidence that didn’t support their hypothesis.
Cowan had 14 prior felony convictions, mostly for property crimes in North Carolina. On Tuesday, the legal battle was over how to sentence him for the new offenses, including which of the attack convictions — attempted murder or assault — should be considered the most-serious offense.
The first-degree assault conviction carried more prison time than the attempted murder, and case law supported treating it as the most-serious charge, Matheson said.
Bowden agreed with Matheson’s analysis. That resulted in Cowan facing close to two years longer behind bars. His sentence also included two years for using a knife as a deadly weapon.
Judge Richard Okrent had presided over the trial, but he was unable to sentence Cowan because of illness. With Cowan’s consent, Bowden stepped in to take the case.
Scott North: 425-339-3431; north@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @snorthnews
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