Man sentenced to 41 years for fatal stabbing of Pasco school bus driver
By Dan Thesman on Wednesday, July 29th, 2026 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories
PASCO — A man convicted of fatally stabbing a Pasco school bus driver in front of dozens of children was sentenced Wednesday to nearly 42 years in prison.
Joshua Dian Davis received a 500-month sentence — 41.6 years — from Franklin County Superior Court Judge Shea Brown for the Sept. 24, 2021, murder of driver Richard Lenhart.
A jury found Davis guilty of first-degree murder on Nov. 20, 2025, following a three-week trial.
Lenhart was preparing to depart from Longfellow Elementary School with 35 children on board when Davis boarded the bus and stabbed him multiple times. Security cameras inside the vehicle captured the incident.
The sentence includes a base term of 320 months, a 24-month enhancement for using a knife, and an additional 156 months for aggravating factors. The court determined Davis’s conduct showed deliberate cruelty and caused a foreseeable, destructive impact on others present during the attack.
Franklin County Prosecuting Attorney Shawn P. Sant praised law enforcement agencies, school district staff, and the Lenhart family for their patience during the nearly five-year wait for justice.
“Richard Lenhart was a bus driver for the Pasco School District and was stabbed multiple times doing a job he loved,” Sant said in a statement following the sentencing.
