Man who said he felt 'urge to hurt someone' sentenced in murder of teen girl

KENT, Wash. — Kolby Clark, 19, was sentenced on Friday to 18 years in prison. 

Clark pleaded guilty as charged in March to murder in the second degree for the stabbing death of Jasmyn Tully, 17.

Tully was slain on March 17, 2012 as she slept at a Tukwila apartment.

According to police, Clark told detectives he felt an urge to hurt someone.

"I was armed with a deadly weapon, a knife, and I used that knife to stab her in neck. She died from that wound," Clark said in statement when he pleaded guilty.

Before the sentencing Tully’s family made a passionate plea for as long a sentence as possible.

“I’m sharing in the worst nightmare a parent has, and that’s I outlived my child, and this is a rule against nature,” said Tully’s father Stephen Tully.  “I should not have to bury my child.”

Clark did not show emotion throughout the sentencing hearing, except when his mom spoke through tears in support of her son.

Clark, who was 17 at the time of the murder, was charged as an adult under Washington State's automatic adult jurisdiction law. The sentencing range, which includes a deadly weapon enhancement, is 12-20 years in prison.

In exchange for the guilty plea, prosecutors said in March that they would recommend a sentence of 16 years in prison – 14 years for the murder and two years for the deadly weapon enhancement.

Normally, second-degree murder can carry a sentence of up to life in prison.

On Friday, Clark received a sentence of 18 years: 16 for murder and two for the deadly weapon enhancement.

Tully’s family members seemed satisfied with the 18 year sentence after the trial.

“I felt like if he got one year for every year she’d been alive, she’d have been 18 that year, that I could live with that,” Stephen Tully said.

KIRO