Man charged with attempted murder in attack on 2 Moab dog walkers

MOAB, Utah — Criminal charges were filed Wednesday against a man accused of attacking two people who were walking their dogs in Moab this weekend — stabbing one victim multiple times, and shocking both with a Taser.

Alexander Michael Kensell, 38, who is listed in court documents as homeless, is charged in Utah’s 7th District Court with attempted murder, a first-degree felony; two counts of aggravated assault and two counts of possession of a weapon by a restricted person, third-degree felonies; and marijuana possession, a class B misdemeanor.

A 53-year-old man and a 68-year-old woman, both from Moab, were walking their dogs about 7 a.m. Saturday near 100 South and 200 West when they came across Kensell who had started a fire in dry leaves on the Millcreek Trail, according to charging documents.

“They told Kensell that the fire wasn’t safe and then Kensell began to yell and swear at them,” the charges state.

As the two continued to walk, Kensell continued to yell at the couple, then ran back and forth between them and the fire, making statements such as, “‘I’m barefoot and I can run faster,” according to the charges.

Without warning, he then attacked the man “with a Taser and tased him repeatedly,” the charges state. He also deployed a Taser on the woman and started stabbing her, prompting the man to grab a tree branch and fight him off, according to police. That’s when Kensell focused his attention again on the man.

Both the man and woman told police they thought they were going to be killed. The woman “suffered four stab wounds and a broken sternum from the attack,” according to court documents.

Police, who had been called to the area, heard the woman calling for help. A Moab police officer and Grand County sheriff’s deputy were able to locate Kensell on the trail and detain him.

“Kensell stated that he ‘was just trying to have a campfire,’ and that they were making ‘rude comments’ to him,” according to the charges, which indicate he also said “that he was just tired of people messing with him.”

Prosecutors have requested that Kensell be held in jail without the possibility of posting bail pending trial, noting he told officers he came to the Moab area to “avoid issues he was having in Oklahoma, which makes it likely he would flee the jurisdiction of the court if he were released on bail,” prosecutors wrote in court documents.

The woman was taken to Moab Regional Hospital in serious condition and then flown by helicopter to Utah Valley Regional Hospital in Provo for additional care, according to police.

Moab police lauded the man’s actions, saying the woman “would not have survived the attack if her friend hadn’t reacted so quickly and heroically.”