Man Gets 12 Years For Switchblade Stabbing Of Street Artist
CHICAGO (STMW) -- A Humboldt Park man was sentenced to 12 years in prison Thursday for the fatal stabbing of a street artist during a 2008 fight that spilled out from a Logan Square party.
A judge last month refused to convict the defendant of first-degree murder. Instead, Judge Thomas Hennelly found Kirk Tobolski, now 27, guilty of second-degree murder for the June 14, 2008, switchblade slaying of Brendan Scanlon, the artist known as SOLVE.
On Thursday, Judge Hennelly sentenced Tobolski to 12 years in prison, Cook County State's Attorney's office spokesman Andy Conklin said.
"Mr. Tobolski did stab Mr. Scanlon. He did kill him," Hennelly told supporters of both men as he announced his verdict on July 22. But he said Tobolski acted with "a sudden intense passion when provoked by Mr. Scanlon."
At the party, Scanlon and another man attacked a guy they knew from a tussle in their apartment months before, and fled to an alley near Lyndale and Palmer streets, prosecutors said.
Scanlon and his friend, Joe Depre, were outnumbered by Tobolski and his "gang" of friends, who chased them on bicycles and a moped. Tobolski stabbed Scanlon in the alley as he was being pinned on a old sofa by another man, they said.
Scanlon, a native of Madison, Wis., had moved to Chicago to go to school and work as a freelance graphic artist. The 24-year-old used his moniker SOLVE on many of the stickers and stencils he designed and left around the city.
Tobolski, of the 2600 block of West Iowa Street, faced 4 to 20 years in prison, or he could have received probation.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2010. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
