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Alex Muanambuta was convicted on all seven counts and sentenced to a total of 100 years for the March 22, 2025, knife attack in Champaign, Illinois, that killed Nathan G. Gudeman and wounded Kaitlyn Lassy.

Gudeman, 22, lived in the 1600 block of Healey Avenue. Lassy, 22, was his girlfriend; some reporting identifies her as Katy Lassy. Muanambuta, then 23, lived in Rantoul, north of Champaign, and was known to the couple. At trial, he described Gudeman and Lassy as friends who lived nearby, and testimony identified Lassy as a cousin of Muanambuta's partner.

Shortly after midnight, Muanambuta went to the Healey Avenue residence and attacked both people with a knife. Neighbors found Lassy with her neck cut before officers arrived. A police dog tracked to a neighboring house, where officers found Gudeman dead outside with multiple stab wounds. Lassy survived wounds to her neck and side. She testified that she was held by the hair while her throat was cut and that the neck wound fractured her spine.

Lassy named her attacker during her first contact with police at the scene, though officers had difficulty making out her words because she was struggling to breathe. Muanambuta was detained that night. Investigators found blood matching Gudeman on the top of Muanambuta's shoes and a footprint near Gudeman's body that matched his shoe. A neighbor testified to seeing Gudeman running while being chased by a person matching Muanambuta's description. Muanambuta's phone had been left behind, and his vehicle's dash camera was switched off during the period of the attack. An audio recording of him made less than 20 minutes after the attack was played at trial.

In his police interview after being taken into custody, Muanambuta denied involvement, saying, "I didn't hurt anybody." He said he had not gone to the couple's home and told detectives the blood on his shoes was a slushy from Circle K. His account changed when he testified at trial. He said he had been at the scene but found the violence already under way, had turned off his dash camera and left his phone behind so his girlfriend would not know he was meeting a man he had contacted through Grindr, and had stopped at the house to ask for directions after getting lost.

The bench trial before Champaign County Judge Randy Rosenbaum began on November 18, 2025, and ended that week with Muanambuta found guilty of four counts of first degree murder, one count of attempted first degree murder and two counts of aggravated battery. Rosenbaum also found that the offense involved exceptionally brutal and heinous behavior indicative of wanton cruelty. On January 21, 2026, he sentenced Muanambuta to 70 years for Gudeman's murder, to be served at 85 percent, and a consecutive 30 years at 100 percent for Lassy's attempted murder, with credit for 306 days already served. Assistant State's Attorney En-Chi Lin prosecuted the case, and Public Defender Elisabeth Pollock represented Muanambuta. No appeal has been reported.

The video is a police interview-room recording running about 75 minutes. It contains the interview itself and opens with a short narrated introduction naming the people involved.

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Part 2 of 2 of the recording described above.