Kirk's wife: 'We can get closure'
KATIE HARTWIG/Press file Bo Kirk pitches while playing in a co-ed softball league for Northwest Specialty Hospital last summer at Ramsey Park in Coeur d’Alene.
JAKE PARRISH/Press file David Earl Hutto, 44, is seen on a television screen during a first appearance with Judge James D. Stow at the Kootenai County jail. Hutto pleaded guilty to the killing of Bo Kirk.
COEUR d’ALENE — The man who killed her husband, William “Bo” Kirk, will not face the death penalty, and Amanda Kirk is OK with that.
David Earl Hutto pleaded guilty Wednesday to first-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping and robbery. A fourth charge of arson was dropped as part of a plea agreement.
Kootenai County Prosecuting Attorney Barry McHugh said Wednesday the maximum possible sentence for Hutto is life imprisonment for each of the charges.
“Barry and his staff have been very diligent in keeping us informed and involved in this case, and we are at peace with his decision and the prospect of closure in this case,” Amanda Kirk wrote Thursday in a message to The Press. “We can get closure and begin the long and difficult healing process.”
Bo Kirk, the father of three, went missing Oct. 22 after leaving his job as an X-ray technician at Northwest Specialty Hospital in Post Falls. His 2015 GMC truck was found burning later that night on Rimrock Road in the northern section of Kootenai County.
Kirk’s body was found Oct. 25 in the Hayden Creek area of the Coeur d’Alene National Forest.
Hutto was arrested Oct. 27. Investigators said Hutto followed Kirk home after a road-rage incident and kidnapped Kirk from outside Kirk’s Coeur d’Alene home. They reported Hutto robbed Kirk before shooting and killing him and burning his truck.
Press online readers and Facebook fans were unhappy to read the death penalty is not a sentencing option for Hutto.
“As a taxpayer I despise these type of verdicts. He is guilty on all counts and does not deserve to live, an ‘eye for an eye’! Death penalty sooner rather than later,” wrote Sharlyn Walker-Berry on facebook.com/CDAPress.
Jackie Bilaski wrote on cdapress.com that the possible sentence is a “slap in the face to the Kirk family.”
“This man took the life of a husband, father and great friend to all that knew him,” Bilaski wrote. “Our taxpayer dollars should not be used to give him three hots and a cot for the rest of his life.”
Amanda Kirk wrote that she and her children and Bo’s friends appreciate the public’s concern that justice be done, but they asked that people allow Prosecutor McHugh to do his job.
“We know he has our interest at heart and will do the best he can do on our behalf,” Amanda wrote.
Hutto is scheduled to be sentenced April 10 at 9 a.m.
Hutto’s roommate, Justin Roy Booth, was also arrested Oct. 27. Booth has been in federal custody in the Bonner County Detention Center since then, charged with unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon.