A Madison artist who was involved in a fatal downtown bar fight last year was sentenced Friday to two years in prison for his role in the incident and for an attack on a woman several months earlier.
Travis Knapp, 34, local street spray-painter, apologized to the family of Juan Bernal, who died the day after the Sept. 3 stabbing outside the Plaza Tavern, for having had any role in Bernal's death. Knapp was charged for harboring and aiding a felon for taking the knife used to stab Bernal from Justin Stout, 31, who is charged with first-degree reckless homicide for Bernal's death.
Dane County Circuit Judge David Flanagan sentenced Knapp concurrently for his role in the Plaza Tavern incident and for a substantial battery charge, when he reportedly punched a woman on State Street in February 2008 after she asked him for a cigarette. Flanagan said he made the sentences concurrent in the two separate cases because they both stemmed from Knapp's drinking.
Flanagan said he could not ignore the danger that Knapp poses to the public since he failed to address his drinking problem after the first crime.
Stout is scheduled to stand trial on the reckless homicide charge in March.
