CANYON COUNTY, Idaho — Nearly 60 people gathered in a Canyon County courtroom on Wednesday to see Wyatt Cunningham, a man who pleaded guilty to aggravated battery for stabbing a young woman, be sentenced to 15 years in prison.
“Every time I close my eyes, I see his face,” the victim, Bailey Fanopoulos, told the court. She said she never imagined her life to look like a horror film.
Canyon County Judge Davis VanderVelde told Cunningham he would violate an agreement to sentence him to two years, and chose a unified sentence of 15 years in total because what he did was "quite frankly the most terrifying type of crime we have.” Cunningham will be eligible for parole after eight years.
Cunningham stabbed 18-year-old Fanopoulos in his then unborn child’s nursery after he invited her over for a shopping trip on Nov. 22, 2021 at his house in Middleton. He stabbed her in her shoulder, the top of her head and in her knee so hard it bent the knife, she said, and also attempted to stab her in the stomach and slash her throat.
Fanopoulos locked herself in the bathroom to get away from her attacker.
“He kept asking me if I was alive,” Fanopoulos said, and cries rang out in the courtroom. “I stayed quiet on the bathroom floor praying I would see my family again.”
Cunningham also took to her phone and asked what she would tell law enforcement when they arrived on scene.
When Cunningham's wife came home and found out what happened, she began arguing with him, Fanopoulos said in her statement. He told his wife to stay out of the bathroom. His wife was then able to render aid to Fanopoulos.
"He stabbed me in the head, which the knife bent, and if the tip of the knife did not break off in my knee, it would have killed me," Fanopoulos told KTVB.
However, she first called Cunningham's mother, who showed up to the house, but took him to the bathroom to "bandage him up" from the injuries he received during the altercation, according to an affidavit -- while Fanopoulos was still in the house bleeding, waiting for EMS to arrive.
“After fighting for my life and being left to bleed out in the bathroom, I do believe I am here today to for a reason and hope my words are heard,” Fanopoulos said.
The state said that Cunningham has a history of violent urges, which was documented in the pre-sentence investigation, and that he finally acted on those urges the day of the stabbing. Cunningham admitted in his statement to the court that he "overestimated" his self control and should have gotten help.
Fanopoulos' mother, Danielle, collected letters and testimony from other women who have had uncomfortable or dangerous experiences with Cunningham. Judge VanderVelde told the court he read these letters.
"Each time a new girl reached out later in his life, it increased. Up to a point of actually having a gun pulled out with two minors at a high school," Danielle said.
In an affidavit, Middleton Police officer Erica Robbins said that when she interviewed Cunningham that day and asked why he stabbed Fanopoulos, he said, "I had no reason to be mad at her or stab her or anything. It was just like an impulse. It was weird, it didn't feel real."
Cunningham's defense pleaded with the judge for rehabilitation rather than imprisonment because they claimed he has four mental illnesses that went left untreated.
His defense said that this case has no credible evidence that Cunningham has a propensity for violence, which was met by laughs in the audience.
Danielle told KTVB after the sentencing that she hopes this case will receive enough awareness to reach other victims, and that her family will continue to keep moving even after such a horrible tragedy.
"I hope he gets the help he needs," Fanopoulos told KTVB. "I hope he never does this to another female - or anybody - again."
Cunningham will be eligible for parole in 2030.
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