PHOENIX (TCN) — A 36-year-old man will spend almost two decades behind bars for fatally stabbing his wife in a parking lot last year.
The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office announced Aug. 18 that Stephen Dennis was sentenced to 18 years in prison after he previously pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.
On the morning of Sept. 9, 2024, Phoenix Police responded to a possible stabbing outside a Home Depot. Witnesses walking nearby reportedly heard a woman yelling for help and found the victim, identified by KTVK/KPHO-TV as Aliccia Grant, in the driver’s seat of a vehicle with multiple stab wounds. Grant’s husband, Dennis, was reportedly in the passenger seat at the time.
According to prosecutors, witnesses claimed Dennis left the car and then argued with a bystander before fleeing on foot. Citizens attempted to revive Grant until first responders arrived.
The attorney’s office said, “As one of the officers continued to apply pressure to the victim’s wounds, the victim made a dying declaration to him identifying Dennis as her attacker.” Grant was transported to a local hospital and died from her wounds.
According to authorities, Dennis called 911 shortly after the incident and confessed to stabbing his wife and told them where the weapon was. He purportedly said they “had recently married and were discussing an annulment at the time of the incident.”
Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell stated, “This wasn’t just a violent crime — it was an act of betrayal carried out by someone who should have been a source of safety, not fear.”
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