Bellingham man sentenced for his role in 2025 bus stop stabbing
A Bellingham man was sentenced Tuesday to more than 15 years in prison for stabbing a man last year at a bus stop.
Bennie Demetrius Washington Jr., 25, was found guilty of attempted second-degree murder and first-degree assault with a deadly weapon on March 6. Washington was arrested on June 17, 2025, for attacking his former roommate, Tony Kilbert.
Kilbert was at the bus stop at 600 Dupont St. in Bellingham when Washington and 18-year-old Jose-Juarez Montez of Everett walked up to him and began to fight him. Kilbert said that both men stabbed him and then left the scene. He was taken to the hospital and treated for a fractured vertebra and punctured diaphragm.
Juarez-Montez pleaded guilty to second-degree assault in November and was sentenced to three years in prison.
“They left me there for dead,” Kilbert said during Washington’s sentencing hearing.
Kilbert asked for Washington to receive the longest sentence possible.
“He needs to know what justice is,” Kilbert said.
Washington addressed the court at his sentencing, though it was just to make a record of what he believed to be misconduct and other issues with his trial. He and his attorney plan to appeal his sentence.
Judge Lee Grochmal followed the state’s request for a sentence at the top of the standard range with a two-year enhancement for the use of a deadly weapon other than a firearm. She said she was concerned that Washington poses a “severe danger to the community” if he doesn’t learn how to manage his stress and control his emotions.
Grochmal said she agreed with the jury’s findings on Washington’s guilt, and noted that Washington showed a lack of remorse.
Washington was sentenced to 189 months in prison followed by three years in community custody, during which time he will be required to undergo a mental health evaluation and complete any recommended treatment. A lifetime no-contact order with Kilbert was put in place.