Man spared death in Arizona killing

An Arizona jury has decided that the man who killed a former Arlington Heights woman in 2004 during a knife-wielding spree through a Phoenix apartment complex will face life in prison instead of death by lethal injection.

It was a hard decision, said one juror, Todd Kadjan.

"We went back and forth a number of times" before agreeing to life in prison for 30-year-old Matthew Cunningham, Kadjan said.

The same jury had previously found Cunningham guilty of the first-degree murders of 28-year-old Katharine Spain, whose parents, Bill and Pat Albu still live in Arlington Heights, and William Barker Jr., 35, along with counts of aggravated assault and burglary.

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

The stabbings of Spain and Barker left even veteran police and prosecutors amazed at the brutality.

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

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. Marlon now lives with his father in Huntley.

During the trial, Cunningham's mental health was a key element in the defense's 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 during high school in Michigan.

Prosecutors had argued that it was Cunningham's almost daily use of drugs and alcohol since early in high school, combined with his frustration at his life, that resulted in the murder spree.

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

Judge Sally Duncan will sentence Cunningham on all five charges at 11 a.m. March 21. She can choose between natural life, meaning he is not eligible for parole, and life, in which case he would be eligible for parole after 25 years.

"Whatever they decide to go with is fine," Pat Albu, Spain's mother, said in an e-mail to the Daily Herald.