Sentence doubled in Cook murder

Amber Boeken will spend nearly 20 years in prison — twice what Kansas sentencing guidelines prescribed — for her role in the murder of Iolan Shawn Cook.

The “double-double” rule instituted Monday by Allen County District Judge Daniel Creitz, can be handed down in special circumstances.

Boeken pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in Cook’s March 2016 killing. She originally was charged with first-degree murder, but reached a plea deal with prosecutors in February 2017.

As part of the plea deal, Boeken agreed to testify against co-defendant, Joshua Knapp.

Knapp was convicted Thursday of first-degree murder following a four-day jury trial. He will be sentenced Sept. 18.

Testimony at Knapp’s trial regarding Boeken’s role in the killing varied, depending on who was on the witness stand.

Boeken admitted assisting Knapp, by accompanying him and Cook, first to a rural county road north of Gas where Cook’s throat was slit, then to a desolate spot of the Neosho River in rural Coffey County, where Cook was stabbed several more times and left in the river.

His body was found nearly three weeks later.

Boeken testified that Knapp was the one who cut, then stabbed Cook. She denied stabbing Cook.

Brent Cagle, another witness for the prosecution, told jurors he saw Boeken make “a stabbing motion” toward Cook while on the banks of the Neosho, although he admitted he did not see a knife.

Who did the actual stabbing was irrelevant, according to Allen County Attorney Jerry Hathaway during his closing arguments of Knapp’s trial.

“Josh Knapp aided Amber Boeken in the murder of Shawn Cook,” Hathaway said. “Amber Boeken aided Josh Knapp in the murder of Shawn Cook.”

CREITZ gave Boeken an opportunity to make a statement prior to Monday’s sentencing.

“No words can describe how I feel,” Boeken said. “An apology just wouldn’t suffice to the sorrow I feel for Mr. Cook’s family.”

Following her statement, Creitz told Hathaway and Mary Stevenson, Boeken’s attorney, he was not inclined to follow the terms of the plea deal, calling Cook’s murder “a horrible death” over drugs and debt.