Court sees interrogation tape over objection from Almandinger attorney

PALMER — Monday and Tuesday, the prosecution for the state of Alaska showed hours of interrogation tape between Erick Almandinger and Sgt. Tony Wegrzyn as part of evidentiary hearings ahead of the scheduled May 1 trial.

Almandinger is being tried separately among four teens charged with the murder of 16 year old David Grunwald in November of 2016. The hours of video featuring interviews of Almandinger by Sgt. Wegrzyn while Almandinger was accompanied by family were shown Monday and Tuesday, despite objection from the defense counsel.

Attorney for Almandinger, Jon Iannaccone, moved to suppress statements from four of the interviews, which includes one from Dec. 2 after Sgt. Wegrzyn had determined Almandinger was a prime suspect in the case.

Iannaccone moved to suppress these interviews because he felt that investigators used Almandinger's family to "break him".

"They did this by lying to his family to make them think Erick could be treated with leniency if he spoke to the police and by exploiting the face this was such a high-profile event in the community," Iannaccone wrote.

Almandinger, Bradley Renfro, Dominic Johnson and Austin Barrett are all charged with the murder of Grunwald. Almandinger claims it was Johnson who pulled the trigger. District Attorney Roman Kalytiak said there's no set timeline on when Judge Gregory Heath will issue his decision on what evidence can be used in trial.

Evidentiary hearings will continue Monday, Feb 12.