31-year-old man gets nearly 11 years in prison for stabbing two homeless people in downtown Spokane

A judge sentenced a 31-year-old man to nearly 11 years in prison after he admitted stabbing two homeless men while they were asleep last year in downtown Spokane.

Charles Nutter pleaded guilty Feb. 16 to first-degree assault and second-degree assault. Spokane County Superior Court Judge Dean Chuang then sentenced Nutter to 129 months in prison.

Nutter stabbed a man, now 38, twice in the early morning hours of May 26 at a Spokane Transit Authority bus shelter on Stevens Street between Sprague and Riverside avenues, according to court documents.

Early in the morning on June 8, Nutter stabbed another man, now 42, in the throat as he slept in a sleeping bag under the railroad viaduct on Jefferson Street between First and Second avenues.

Both victims were taken to the hospital.

The 38-year-old man told police he fell asleep sitting on his seated walker at a covered bus stop and woke to sharp pain, realizing he had been stabbed. He said he believed the assault was random and he did not know who stabbed him, documents say.

The victim told police he was stabbed in the shoulder area and chest, which punctured his lungs.

The 42-year-old victim said he was also asleep when an unknown person stabbed him in the neck, court records say.

Video footage showed Nutter walking past the victim at the bus shelter and out of view. He returned about 50 seconds later, and walked past the victim again before standing for a brief time near the shelter, according to documents.

Nutter walked back toward the victim and, without provocation, stabbed him twice before walking away.

Video footage of the second stabbing showed Nutter running away from the scene.

A family member of Nutter told police he confessed to her to two stabbings. She identified the defendant as Nutter in both videos, documents say.

Detectives learned Nutter had gone to California after the attacks, according to a Spokane police news release last summer.

They put out a warrant for his arrest and alerted the Willits (Calif.) Police Department, as his last known location was in Mendocino County on June 29.

That same day, Willits police officers responded to reports of a homeless man attacked while he slept. Their investigation revealed the attacker wore clothing with a distinctive logo that matched the logo Spokane police noted in its investigation. The status of the California attack was unclear Tuesday.

The next day, Nutter was arrested on the Spokane warrants in Fort Bragg, Calif.

Nutter, who has no prior felonies, will spend three years in community custody when he’s released from prison.