Man sentenced to 22 years in Tacoma park stabbing

A man convicted of attempted murder for a seemingly random attack in a Tacoma park two years ago was sentenced to 22 years in jail on Friday, after the victim asked for him to be given the maximum possible sentence.

Nicholas Matthew was found guilty last year for the 2024 stabbing, in which he followed and attacked a 32-year-old woman who was walking, in the middle of the day, on a trail in Point Defiance Park.

Matthew's sentencing had been delayed because of questions about his mental competency.

The victim opted not to attend the sentencing hearing but sent a message, which was read by prosecutors.

I am exhausted of having my life revolve around this man who tried to murder me," she wrote. "And that I refuse to sacrifice any more of my time, energy and mental health on his behalf."

She wrote that the state's sentencing guidelines for Matthew - 17 to 22 years - "barely scratches the surface" of what she would consider justice.

"What would actually feel like real justice to me is if I could get back all the time that I have lost - from the hospital stay, physical therapy appointments, and PTSD therapy over these last two years," she wrote.

She can never get back, she wrote, the travel plans she had to cancel, the time with friends she missed because it hurt too much to walk, the relationships that she had to pull away from because of fear.

"It would be real justice if I could get back to who I was before, if I could lose the fear that still makes me question going outside alone, and if I could stop looking over my shoulder," she wrote. "If I could get my entire life back to where it was before he tried to kill me, I would consider THAT to be justice. But I cannot."

Pierce County Superior Court Judge Jennifer Andrews, in sentencing Matthew, said that this would have been a murder case, but for the strength shown by the victim and two bystanders in fighting off Matthew.

"In this case there was no regard for human life at all," Andrews said from the bench. She said that Matthew acted with premeditation and intended to kill the victim.

"I am moving on from this experience, in spite of this man," the victim wrote. "At the end of the day here today, I will get to live in a world where he cannot reach me, at least for a time.

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