Dylan Yang guilty in deadly stabbing case

WAUSAU - It took nearly three hours for a Marathon County jury to find a 16-year-old boy guilty in the deadly stabbing of a 13-year-old boy in Wausau.

Dylan Yang was 15 when he was charged with first-degree reckless homicide in connection with the Feb. 27, 2015 death of Isaiah Powell, who was stabbed during a fight between two groups of boys on a street in Wausau. Yang hung his head and then slumped in his chair upon hearing the verdict, his defense attorney putting his arm around him. Many of the people gathered in the crowded courtroom burst into tears after the verdict was read.

The fight between the groups of boys was preceded by threatening messages exchanged on Facebook, which led one group to drive to Yang’s home in the 900 block of Jefferson Street, where the stabbing took place, according to a criminal complaint. Yang admitted during his own testimony Thursday that he stabbed Powell, but claimed he thought Powell had a real gun — not a BB gun.

The trial began Monday and reached a conclusion Friday. The jury left the courtroom shortly before 12 p.m. to begin deliberating after listening to jury instructions read by Marathon County Judge LaMont Jacobson and hearing closing arguments from attorneys on both sides. The jury returned to the courtroom and the verdict was read shortly before 3 p.m.

No sentencing date was immediately set. Yang faces up to 60 years in prison.

During closing arguments before deliberations, Marathon County Assistant District Attorney Lesli Pluster tried to convince the jury Yang threatened the other group of boys through the messages and encouraged them to seek him out for a fight.

“The only thing Dylan was defending that day when he stabbed Isaiah twice in the back was his own reputation,” she said.

Pluster argued Yang did nothing to diffuse the situation or avoid a conflict between the two groups of boys.

“He did not need to bring the biggest knife he could find to a fistfight,” she said.

Jay Kronenwetter, Yang’s defense attorney, argued Yang acted reasonably to protect himself and his friend even though he was wrong about the gun being real.

“Did Dylan think the gun was real? Obviously he did,” he said.

Kronenwetter responded to the claim about Yang unnecessarily grabbing a knife and using it in the fight.

“This notion that he brought a knife to a fistfight is preposterous,” he said. “The first thing that happened was a gun was fired at his residence.”

Pluster argued Yang should have known the gun was not real and noted he admitted he no longer knew where the gun was when the stabbing occurred.

Chris Mueller: 715-345-2251 or christopher.mueller@gannettwisconsin.com; on Twitter@AtChrisMueller