Teen Sentenced To 12 Years In Attack

A 17-year-old boy was sentenced Tuesday to 12 years in prison for fatally stabbing another teen in a parking lot fight.

Jason Lee Jensen of Longview was convicted in March of second-degree murder in the death of Jay Michael Kennedy, 18.

The two had never met until they exchanged words in an apartment complex parking lot on Nov. 17. Both had been drinking, and Kennedy died because Jensen pulled a knife rather than walk away from a fight, Cowlitz County Prosecutor Jim Stonier said.

The words “The Best Defense” were etched on the handle of the knife with a 5-1/2-inch blade.

Superior Court Judge Stephen Warning called Kennedy’s death “horribly senseless.”