At the beginning of 2024, a jury found Monique Huia Sullivan guilty of voluntary manslaughter for fatally stabbing her fiancé, Andrew Moore.

In an appeal to the Wyoming Supreme Court, Sullivan challenged the district court's decision to allow Moore's father to testify and admit a photo of his son while he was still alive.

Background

Sullivan and Moore were sheep shearers from Australia and New Zealand. They worked with a group of sheep shearers who traveled to various ranches around Utah and Wyoming.

On the night of February 19, 2023, they arrived at a ranch near Kemmerer for a job.

Shortly after midnight on February 20, Sullivan stabbed Moore in the left side with a large kitchen knife, killing him. She was later charged with second degree murder.

The only issue at trial was the question of whether Sullivan committed the murder maliciously or if she acted in the heat of passion or self-defense.

The Stabbing

Court records note that "By all accounts, Ms. Sullivan and Mr. Moore had a difficult couple of days prior to the stabbing." They moved their shared trailer from Vernal, Utah, to Green River, Wyoming on February 18 for a small shearing job.

Sullivan claimed that Moore was “angry and frustrated” because he had problems with his new truck, purchased the wrong part to repair the truck, and had trouble finding the Green River job site. Other members of the crew said the same.

The next day, after moving to Kemmerer, Sullivan said Moore's mood had gotten worse.

The morning of the stabbing, Sullivan texted another crew member, Stacey Hikawai, complaining about Moore. She texted she was “[a]bout to stab this ****”

Sullivan and Moore arrived in Kemmerer shortly before dark. When they arrived, they had a flat tire and began to argue. Sullivan changed the tire while Moore went into their trailer and continued to argue.

Moore took a shower and then went to another trailer to hang out and drink beer with Hikawai's boyfriend.

The women joined them a short time later, then returned to Sullivan's trailer where Hikawai fell asleep.

Eventually Moore also went back to their shared trailer. Hikawai says she woke up to the pair arguing, but then fell back asleep.

Later, just after midnight, Hikawai said she heard a “thud” followed by a panicked voice saying, “[D]on’t pull it out.” Then, she said she heard Moore ask, “[W]hy would you do that?” and saw Ms. Sullivan standing by Moore, holding a bloody knife.

Aftermath

Kawana and two other shearers, along with the ranch owner, transported Moore to the hospital in Kemmerer where he was pronounced dead. Law enforcement located Sullivan at the ranch a few hours later. She had a severe, self-inflicted wound on her wrist.

Sullivan was transported to the Kemmerer hospital where she confessed to staff that she had stabbed Moore. She denied being in an altercation and denied that Moore had attacked her. Other than her wrist, she had no signs of injury or assault on her body.

Sullivan was interviewed by a sheriff detective at the hospital. She told the detective she was upset with Moore because of their truck problems, his alcohol use, and things he had said to her.

Sullivan said that immediately before the stabbing she was arguing with Moore and hitting him. She admitted she was “enraged” and “jabbed” at Moore with the knife but stated she did not realize he was so close to her.

On Trial

Sullivan testified in court that Moore was violent and abusive. She recounted incidents when Moore would “pull[ her] out of bed, push[ her], . . . grab[ her] neck and hold[ her] against walls or beds.”

She relayed that he had strangled her in September 2022.

She introduced a photo of bruises on her neck from the 2022 strangling incident. She further explained that they “were arguing in the camper we had in Australia and he came running at me so I ran out of the camper, I twisted my ankle and tripped and fell over and when I was on the ground, [he] jumped on top of me and started strangling me.”

Sullivan also claimed that before Moore went to the Kawana/Hikawai trailer on the night of the stabbing, they argued about the difficulties she had when backing up their trailer and she described Mr. Moore “ripp[ing her] out from behind the steering wheel.”

She testified he “was furious, he was really furious . . . he was like yelling at me through gritted teeth,” like “[t]he time he strangled me.”

Sullivan reported that after she got Moore from the Kawana/Hikawai trailer, they started arguing again. She asserted Moore pushed her to the floor and as she was trying to get up he pushed her to the floor again.

"I could see his body area and his hands came straight up, and I knew he was going to kill me. I knew he was going to kill me, so I grabbed the knife and I stabbed him in the side."

The Challenged Evidence

The prosecution called Sullivan's father as their first witness. They introduced a photograph of Moore in a swimsuit, bent at the waist and kneeling in blue water while holding onto the collar of a dog.

Sullivan objected before the father took the stand, arguing that the sole purpose of bringing him up was to create sympathy with the jury. The prosecution, however, said the photograph was significant in showing the victim's actual body, upright, where the wound was;

"...the distance from the wound to the floor is going to become very important as this case proceeds."

During closing arguments, the prosecution argued that Sullivan's version of the stabbing was implausible because Sullivan and Moore "had to be standing" for the knife to penetrate Moore's side where it did. They poked a hole in her assertion that Sullivan was in a crouched position on the ground with Moore standing over her.

“How is it possible that he got stabbed in that area with arms out like this bent over?” asked the State.

Ultimately, the jury found Sullivan guilty of voluntary manslaughter, and the district court
sentenced her to 12 to 17 years in prison.

She appealed in a timely manner, but the Wyoming Supreme Court did not agree with Sullivan's appeal or argument that the father's testimony and photograph were prosecutorial misconduct.