True Crime
Judge sentences Jean Paul Kirkpatrick to 50 years for the 2023 murder of Fatimah Alghazwi.
On Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, Spokane County Superior Court Judge Marla Polin imposed the term. The Spokesman-Review reported a jury had already convicted Kirkpatrick, 48, of first-degree murder. KREM reported the jury also found an aggravating factor. Tuesday's hearing was the sentence.
By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer ·
Fifty years is the judgment after a guilty verdict. The Spokesman-Review reported Judge Polin told Kirkpatrick he is likely to spend the rest of his life in prison. The jury's first-degree murder conviction is what that term rests on.
Spokane County Superior Court Judge Marla Polin sentenced Jean Paul Kirkpatrick, 48, to 50 years in prison on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, the Spokesman-Review reported. KREM also reported the sentence. Polin told him, "It is likely you will spend the rest of your life in prison." The hearing imposed a term. It did not reopen the verdict.
The Spokesman-Review reported a jury convicted Kirkpatrick of first-degree murder in the killing of his ex-girlfriend, Fatimah Alghazwi, 27. The paper reported she was killed Feb. 9, 2023, at her apartment at Sinto Commons, 509 W. Sinto Ave. in Spokane. She was a nursing student and a mother of two. KREM reported the jury also found an aggravating factor, that he killed Alghazwi shortly after he was released from jail. That finding is the jury's. Tuesday's order is the sentence on the conviction.
The Spokesman-Review's sentencing story said prosecutors described Kirkpatrick punching Alghazwi in the head, strangling her, and stabbing her 18 times in the neck after she was unconscious on the floor. The paper's trial story said Deputy Prosecutor Hannah Stearns counted 19 stab wounds in her closing argument. Those are the state's accounts of the killing. They are not a separate jury finding. The jury's finding is the first-degree murder conviction.
Kirkpatrick told Polin he took "full responsibility" for the murder and acknowledged the loss to Alghazwi's two children, the Spokesman-Review reported. He also said the court overlooked his mental health, and he told the judge, "You had two broken people and it ended up bad." That was his statement at sentencing. The Spokesman-Review reported Polin had revoked his right to represent himself during trial, and standby attorneys Makenzie Taber and Annie Wasilewski took over the case. Tuesday's hearing was the sentence. The jury had already convicted him. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
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