‘Most terrifying type of crime’: Middleton man sentenced for repeatedly stabbing woman

A Middleton man was sentenced to spend at least the next eight years in prison after he repeatedly stabbed an 18-year-old woman last year.

Third District Judge Davis VanderVelde sentenced Wyatt Cunningham, 20, to a total sentence of 15 years, with at least eight years to be served in prison, and ignored a plea deal agreed upon by Cunningham’s attorney and the Canyon County Prosecutor’s Office.

The initial plea deal recommended that Cunningham spend at least two years in prison, with another eight that could be spent in prison, on parole, or both.

“Mr. Cunningham, what you did is quite frankly the most terrifying type of crime that we have,” VanderVelde said in court Wednesday. “You repeatedly stabbed a friend of your wife, an unarmed person, without provocation, without explanation other than impulse. You simply had the urge to see what it felt like to violently cause harm to another and nothing more.”

Bailey Fanopoulos, 18, was asked by Cunningham if she would help him pick out a Christmas gift for his wife, but when Fanopoulos showed up at their house, she was stabbed multiple times by Cunningham, prosecutors said.

“There is no happy ending for me, my life is stuck on repeat,” Fanopoulos told the court Wednesday. “Every time I close my eyes I see his face. Every time I try to sleep, I wake up in terror relieving this nightmare of Wyatt trying to murder me again.”

A change.org petition, with over 10,000 signatures, was created by Fanopoulos’ mother, Danielle, to ask the court for a harsher sentence. Additionally, more than 50 people attended Wednesday’s sentencing and packed the courtroom at the Canyon County Courthouse.

“My hope today here judge is that this man will be sentenced to a longer imprisonment for the crime he’s committed — for the trauma I am forced to relive through the rest of my life,” Fanopoulos said in court. “And the scars on my body that will never go away.”

Fanopoulos told the court prior to the judge handing down Cunningham’s sentence that her voice was not heard during the mediation and plea agreement. She added that she was disappointed with the way the case was handled until recently, and was opposed to the plea deal.

Cunningham pleaded guilty to felony aggravated battery in April, online court records showed. Three other charges filed against him were dismissed: intimidation, threatening, harassing, or preventing a witness from testifying in a criminal case; intentional destruction of a telecommunication line or instrument; and an enhancement for use of a deadly weapon in the commission of a felony.

The maximum sentence for aggravated battery under Idaho law is 15 years in prison.

What happened?

At 11:58 a.m. on Nov. 22, 2021, the Middleton Police Department responded to a reported stabbing at a home along Fort Williams Street in Middleton, according to an affidavit of probable cause written by Officer Erica Robbins.

Robbins said in the affidavit that when she responded, Cunningham’s wife took her to the bathroom, where she saw Fanopoulos lying on the floor “surrounded by blood and blood smears.”

Cunningham told police that he and Fanopoulos were talking when he stabbed her in the shoulder, the affidavit said. Fanopoulos, in court Wednesday, said that she was “very confused” about what was going on when Cunningham stabbed her.

Fanopoulos said Cunningham then attempted to slash her throat, but she blocked the knife, which led to her hands and fingers being “deeply cut.” He then tried to stab her in the stomach, causing Fanopoulos to fall to the ground. She said at that point, Cunningham stabbed her in the knee.

“He then stabbed me so hard from the top of my head that the knife bent and was no longer usable. Wyatt then left the room,” Fanopoulos said in court. “I was scared for my life, and I believed at this point Wyatt went to get another knife and to come back and finish trying to kill.”

An image of the knife shown in court showed that the weapon was completely curved.

Fanopoulos said she hid in the bathroom covered in blood. During that time she applied pressure on her shoulder wound and attempted to call 911, but was “in and out of consciousness.”

Cunningham was able to get into the bathroom, and he took Fanopoulos’ phone, officials said. It wasn’t until his wife came home that the authorities were called.

“I had no reason to be mad at her or stab her or anything,” Cunningham told police, according to the affidavit. “It was just like an impulse. It was weird, it didn’t feel real.”

When asked by Robbins to explain the “weird impulse,” Cunningham said it was like “an instinct, like you feel like it’s like an obligation almost.” He added that he’s had the feeling since he was young.

Cunningham, who had almost no reaction during the sentencing, could be seen nodding as his attorney Travis Rice said the battery could have possibly been prevented if Cunningham had gotten the mental help he needed. Rice said Cunningham has multiple mental health issues and recently received an additional four diagnoses related to dissociation of reality.

“I do want to say that I’m sorry,” Cunningham said in court. “I know that no apology will be good enough. The past can’t be changed and only time can heal things now. I overestimated my self-control and should have got the help I needed.”