He fatally stabbed his ex’s friend and blames her, he told the judge at sentencing

Timothy Wilson did not want the man he stabbed last year to die, he told a judge Friday.

“It was such a horrible situation that happened so fast,” Wilson said before he was sentenced for the death of 46-year-old Matthew Peru.

Wilson told Pierce County Superior Court Judge Michael Schwartz he acted in self-defense against an attack his ex-girlfriend planned.

“Often times discretion is the better part of valor,” the judge told Wilson before he sentenced him to four years and four months in prison.

Court records give this account of the stabbing:

Wilson’s ex-girlfriend and Peru — her friend — went to Wilson’s Puyallup-area home Oct. 16 to get tools she left there.

She said Wilson charged her with a pickax and knocked her down when he saw them at the property in the 12000 block of 115th Avenue Court East.

Peru tackled Wilson and the fight ended up inside a mobile home. Peru came out and said he’d been stabbed. He died at the scene.

Wilson told investigators he stabbed Peru with a kitchen knife after the other man grabbed him around the waist and picked him up.

He also said his ex-girlfriend had pointed a gun at him, which is why he knocked her down.

Last week, as part of negotiations with prosecutors, Wilson pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter, second-degree assault, felony harassment, and unlawful possession of a deadly weapon in jail.

According to charging papers, he had “a nail and sharp metal pieces that were converted into a swinging weapon” in the Pierce County Jail on Aug. 30.

Wilson told the court he’s a hard-working, “law-abiding citizen of Pierce County,” and that he’s remorseful about what happened.

Schwartz said he believed Wilson did not want Peru to die, but he asked him to take time in prison to reflect on his role in the crime, the way Wilson took time to blame the victim Friday.

“Whatever conclusion you come to,” the judge said, “another man did die.”