Almandinger trial underway

PALMER— Erick Almandinger is the first of four teens to go to trial for the murder of fellow teen, David Grunwald back in November 2016. On Monday, May 14, each side of the case made their opening statements and witnesses took to the stand to testify.

Ben and Edie Grunwald have attended nearly every trial up to this point. Now that the wheels of justice are spinning towards a verdict, Ben stood outside the courtroom amidst a hefty crowd.

“It sucks. I shouldn’t have to be here today,” Ben said.

As far as how all of this will play it, that’s for the jury to decide.

“Who knows? It only takes one person,” Ben said.

The seats in the courtroom filled up with only a few open seats. Palmer District Attorney, Roman J. Kalytiak made the first opening statement.

“Palmer, Alaska… Why do we like living here? Probably because of the natural beauty, the lack of traffic, the down to earth people, the Alaskan rituals with the change of seasons. … Also, and probably most importantly, watching the children grow,” Kalytiak said. “David had a lot going for him.”

Kalytiak projected the images of each piece of evidence on a projector.

Ladies and gentlemen, this all crumbled on November 13, 2016. … Like many other terrible incidents, this could have been avoided. Had one circumstance been a little bit different, and something not happened or had not gone some place, we wouldn’t be here today,” Kalytiak said.

The first point to press was the day Grunwald went missing and according to Kalytiak, the day he died: November 13, 2016.

Almandinger’s “gang like” behavior was well established by both sides for entirely different purposes. The defense painted Almandinger as a young male fascinated with the culture who got in over his head. Almandinger’s defense attorney, Jon Iannaccone noted that he admitted his client was guilty of several lesser crimes after the night of the murder. He said that Almandinger was “too scared” to stop Grunwald’s murder and didn’t come clean until he was talking to the authorities.

“It was a totally normal day,” Kalytiak said. “But later on, David was defeated by them,” Kalytiak said as he pointed to the faces of Almandinger, Dominic Johnson, David Evans, Bradley Perrigin-Renfro, and Austin Barrett.

The events of Nov. 13, 2016, according the prosecution, were corroborated by Grunwald’s girlfriend, Victoria on the witness stand:

After a day of eating out and shopping with his family and girlfriend, Grunwald took his girlfriend to her mother’s residence, which was fairly close to the Almandinger residence. Evans asked Grunwald for a ride over to Almandinger’s. With Victoria in the passenger seat, Grunwald picked up Evans at the Pioneer Pizza parking lot.

Kalytiak said that Grunwald wanted to hang out “with the boys.” The “All-American Kid” seemed to have plans to return home by curfew after hanging out and smoking weed with “the boys.”

“There was usually no shortage of marijuana at the Almandinger home since Rodney Almandinger grew marijuana at the time,” Kalytiak said.

Grunwald called his mom to extend his curfew. Due to his military upbringing, Grunwald was never late for curfew, according to Victoria.

“Even if he was going to be a minute late, he called,” Victoria said.

After dropping off Victoria, Grunwald arrived at the Almandinger residence in his Ford Bronco.

This is where the defense and prosecutions stories seem to agree, before taking drastically different turn on Almandinger’s intent that evening, as well as the motive behind his actions the following weeks until Grunwald’s frozen body was uncovered.

There was an alleged conversation between Johnson and Almandinger, who prosecutors argue, “hatched a terrible plan.”

Johnson asked Almandinger to bring his gun into the trailer to pistol whip David, according to Kalytiak.

“Let me get that 4.0,” Johnson allegedly said, referring to one of the two pistols accepted as evidence, a 40 caliber, semi-automatic Ruger, the other a 9mm Springfield.

“I gotta act fast… Do you feel me?” Johnson allegedly asked Almandinger, who allegedly replied, “yeah I feel you.”

Whoever attacked Grunwald left several deep lacerations on his head. Kalytiak showed an image of Grunwald’s head to the jury.

The motive, according to the prosecution, was to cover up their savage beating. He said that Grunwald begged for his life on the way to the Butte. According to Kalytiak, the suspects forced Grunwald into his own car and the assailants pulled off around mile 7.3 off Knik River Road. They all walked about a few hundred yards into the woods and someone pulled the trigger, he said.

“As David’s body was freezing to the ground in the woods, they got busy destroying the evidence,” Kalytiak said.

The designated shooter is at the heart of the Almandinger trial. The defense claims that Almandinger didn’t pull the trigger and the prosecution claimed that no matter who actually “put a bullet through Grunwald’s brain,” Almandinger played a critical role in his demise and attempted to cover his tracks.

“They flashed gang signs all the time, the kind of men who have ‘toolies,’” Kalytiak said.

‘Toolies’ is a slang term for a firearm, particularly handguns.

According to Kalytiak, Peterson was Almandinger’s “gangster role model” and the teens sought him out for advice.

After the murder, the group of teens made their way to Peterson’s house in Grunwald’s Bronco. They grabbed some gas cans and left Barrett at Peterson’s house.

“Maybe because Austin Barrett didn’t want to be caught, maybe it was because Austin Barrett was the shooter, maybe it was because he had blood on his hands or on his body, or perhaps his part was getting rid of the guns, or maybe it was just because he was just going to spend the night at Devin Peterson’s,” Kalytiak said.

The suspects allegedly took the Bronco to the “other side of the Valley,” in another remote spot and set it on fire.

The youths walked for a while then took a cab back into Palmer, according to Kalytiak. He said that a local cab driver, Scott McCormick picked them up.

The teens allegedly carried on as if nothing happened.

“There was joking, there was smoking. They partied,” Kalytiak said.

After dropping him off, they went to the Holiday gas station.

“Bradley Renfro went in with a 20-dollar bill to buy gasoline got change and filled the tank. Johnson was on the phone with Peterson, his advisor as the gas was being pumped,” Kalytiak said.

Almandinger, Johnson and Perrigin-Renfro allegedly took the Bronco past Wasilla, towards the Little Su.

“They poured gasoline all over David’s Bronco and Almandinger torched it,” Kalytiak said.

The teens allegedly bleached their carpet to remove the blood and burned a carpet to sanctify the trailer.

In December 2016, Johnson aided authorities in finding Grunwald’s body with conditions, including not making any statements. Investigators found a 9mm casing near Grunwald’s body and it matched with the Springfield. The teens didn’t get rid of their guns. After obtaining a search warrant, AST found the two guns inside a backpack at Peterson’s residence.

During Iannaccone’s opening statement he started immediately with quotes, “can you hand me my toolie? If anything happens, you’re not going to be involved,” he said several times to the jury.

“… A real gun with real consequences. The kids refer to it as a ‘toolie.’ In November of 2016, Erick thought he was the baddest and the coolest and the smartest 16 year old around. He dressed in the latest L.A gang fashions, he flashed gang signs. He thought he had cool friends,” Iannaccone said.

On Nov. 13, 2016 two distinct kinds of friends showed up at Erick Almandinger’s house, Iannaccone said. At one hand, there was David Grunwald, all All-American-Kid. Nice family, loving home, steady girlfriend, had his own bank account, saved up and bought a car.

“Another group of friends showed up. What did the kids have in common? They liked Erick’s marijuana,” Iannaccone said.

“They were at the opposite of David Grunwald: on again, off again homelessness, all kinds of family problems, committing other crimes. They were badder than Erick Almandinger. They were certain they were badder than David Grunwald; somehow they both ended up in the same trailer. There was no plan for them to be there that night together but somehow they ended up together.”

“You’re about to see a lot of difficult things together… Erick and David would normally have just played video games, according to Iannaccone but the ‘so-called cool kids’ showed up because they wanted to smoke Almandinger’s marijuana… It just feels so preventable,” Iannaccone said.

In Iannaccone’s version of the night, Grunwald was in the trailer with Barrett, Perrigin-Renfro and Johnson, while Almandinger was outside. Johnson “begged” Almandinger for the ‘toolie’ which he “stupidly gives it to him,” Iannaccone argued.

“And for no apparent reason at all, Dominick bashed David Grunwald in the head with it. Austin Barret helped,” Iannaccone said. “What else was in the backpack?”

According to Iannaccone’s opening statement, the teen brought the gun to Peterson, their “advisor” and “role model.”

Iannaccone agreed that the 9mm gun was clearly the murder weapon. Both guns were in the backpack at Peterson’s residence. Amid the guns was a distinctive watch ram’s head on it.

“This guy wearing the watch? That’s Austin Barrett — that’s the one who shot David Grunwald,” Iannaccone said.

Iannaccone said that the authorities did an effective job investigating and he wasn’t going to dispute the evidence.

He also said that the law enforcement used acceptable means, feigning evidence to get Erick to say “what really happened.”

“There is solidarity and secrecy regarding that crime- the cloak of secrecy and solidarity,” Kalytiak said.

He referred to Alaskan Statute 11.16.110(2) which reads: “a person is legally accountable for the conduct of another constituting an offense if, with the intent to promote or facilitate the commission of the offense, the person solicits another to commit the offense or aids or abets the other planning or committing the offense.”

On the same day as Almandinger’s first day of trial in Palmer, Peterson went to federal court facing multiple charges including tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution.

“We will prove in this trial the murder of David Grunwald was a total group effort by them,” Kalytiak said.

This is a developing story with more updates to follow.