Tucson musician pleads guilty in slashing of man's throat

A well-known Tucson musician has pleaded guilty to slashing the throat of a random stranger outside a hardware store earlier this year, court records show.

Michael Moynihan, Jr., 35, a jazz saxophonist, on Thursday pleaded guilty except insane to attempted first degree murder. Moynihan was sentenced to 10.5 years in the Arizona State Hospital, an official for the Pima County Superior Court said Friday.

The stabbing occurred in February at a hardware store in midtown.

Police found a man with a “large injury to his neck,” court records say. The man assumed Moynihan had punched him in the neck but only realized that he was stabbed when “he noticed blood pouring down his t-shirt.”

It required 26 sutures to close the wound, court records say.

Moments after the stabbing Moynihan flagged officers down at a nearby restaurant near, court records show.

“(H)e flagged down officers and made utterances that he tried to kill someone. Officers were also approached by a witness, who confirmed to officers that [Moynihan] had stabbed someone,” court records say. “[Moynihan] admitted that he responded to the Home Depot to purchase box cutters. His intention was to kill a random stranger.”

“He stated that he noticed the victim and tried to slash his throat. The victim was able to chase him off,” court records say. “He was excited that he was able to go through with the stabbing and stated that he would try to kill someone if he was released from jail.”

Moynihan’s mother told detectives during an interview that he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. She also told detectives that the night prior Moynihan was “seeing Demons and wanted to kill someone,” according to the interim complaint filed in Pima County Justice Court.

She went on to tell detectives “(Moynihan) was acting weird and left walking” to the hardware store.

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Moynihan was arrested and charged on suspicion of attempted murder, aggravated assault with a dangerous instrument and aggravated assault with temporary but substantial injury.

Three years earlier, in February 2020, Moynihan was indicted by a Pima County grand jury on suspicion of four counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon or dangerous instrument, which are all class 3 felonies.

The charges stemmed from an incident a month earlier, when Moynihan “had a complete breakdown,” obtained a gun and brandished it at four employees of an East Speedway convenience store while “speaking what can only be described as gibberish,” according to a July 2020 sentencing memorandum filed in Pima County Superior Court.

“He then drove 2500 miles to New York City where he was arrested when police found the guns in the car. Michael spent several months at Riker’s Island, in the mental health unit, before he was allowed to post bond and his family was able to pick him up,” according to the sentencing memorandum.

Moynihan was found guilty on one of the four assault charges; he was sentenced to five years of supervised probation, 500 hours of community service, as well as to be placed on the SMI, the “Seriously Mentally Ill Caseload,” court records show.

Moynihan was raised in Tucson and graduated from Catalina Foothills High School. As a saxophonist, he spent two years with the Tucson Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, playing the Tucson Symphony Orchestra youth concert after winning the orchestra’s young artist competition as a senior.

After graduation he attended the University of Indiana on scholarship, but left after his third year. He previously told the Star that he had experienced a “quarter-life” crisis. He came home to Tucson, enrolled in the University of Arizona and switched his major to biology.

He later returned to music, dropping out of college and beginning a journey that included playing in the pit for a series of Broadway musicals and becoming a regular in the Key Ingredients of African Soul, Tucson’s African folk ensemble that played Afro-pop, Afro-Cuban Jazz and Afro-Caribbean music.

In the 2020 sentencing memorandum, it is stated that Moynihan is diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder. That’s a “mental health disorder that is marked by a combination of schizophrenia symptoms, such as hallucinations or delusions, and mood disorder symptoms, such as depression or mania,” according to the Mayo Clinic.

In September 2022, Moynihan was part of jazz singer Ada Redd Austin’s band that played a benefit concert at Dunbar Pavilion.