Criminal gone wild lands in jail

PALMER — Would-be absconders could probably do better than James Anderson whose trek through the ceiling at the trooper’s Palmer post ended with broken ceiling tiles, a trooper with an injured leg and Anderson behind bars.

Anderson, 21, appeared in court Friday morning, dressed, unlike his co-defendant Ashley Larsen, in a black T-shirt and blue jeans rather than prison garb. He entered not-guilty pleas and was ordered held on $15,000 bail.

Asked for his phone number, he replied, “I don’t know the number of the jail.”

Asked for his address, he gave that of the Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility.

The whole saga started Wednesday night— Anderson’s birthday — when troopers received a report of a silver Nissan Titan stolen from a home on Bogard Road across from the Williwaw subdivision.

In an affidavit filed with the case against Anderson, troopers say they tried to stop the pickup but the driver eluded them, dodging spike strips and tearing down Knik-Goose Bay Road at speeds exceeding 120 miles per hour.

In a press statement, troopers report they broke off the pursuit when it got too dangerous at about 49th State Street and Tern Road.

But that wouldn’t be the last they saw of the pickup.

On Thursday at 4:45 p.m., the Nissan’s owner said he’d spotted his pickup. Troopers caught up to the pickup, the affidavit states, but by the time they got to it at an apartment complex on Elsinore Avenue just off Bogard, its occupants had fled.

Troopers began a search. A police dog and its handler showed up and started following footprints. The first set led to a church at Bogard and Peck Street.

Inside, they talked to folks who said they’d seen a man come in, take off his sweater and hat, then wander around.

“Troopers contacted the subject inside the church who was drinking tea and detained him,” the affidavit states.

The man turned out to be Anderson, though he first gave troopers a fake name, according to the affidavit.

The second set of tracks led troopers to Larsen, 20, who also gave them a fake name. But her mother told troopers she’d gotten text messages from her daughter saying she was in a “hot truck.” That’s when Larsen came clean. Larsen, according to the affidavit, told troopers she and Anderson had passed out at about 1 a.m. after using heroin.

“Ashley stated that when she woke up at approximately 1 p.m. they had no vehicles. Ashley stated that Anderson left for approximately one hour and returned with a silver Nissan truck,” troopers report.

As one group of troopers were talking to Anderson and Larsen, another trooper came back to the Palmer post with a report of a burglary on Weathervane Circle. Someone had broken into a tool shop, doing $500 damage, and stolen $5,000 worth of tools.

Troopers say the victim in that case identified tools in the back of the Nissan as coming from the shop. They also say that footprints at the scene matched Anderson’s.

Now under arrest, Anderson was put into the facility’s detention room. But he didn’t stay there.

Troopers say he climbed into the ceiling of the post and crawled about 30 feet. Two troopers went in after him, and one ended up falling through the ceiling, injuring his leg. Troopers estimate damage to the ceiling at $2,500.

At Anderson’s arraignment, Assistant District Attorney Rick Allen argued for a significant bail amount.

“He attempted to escape, very nearly did escape,” Allen said, adding that to get into the ceiling Anderson “scaled a 10-foot wall.”

Anderson was charged with seven felonies including burglary, theft, vehicle theft, and criminal mischief, as well as seven misdemeanors, including attempted escape.

Court records show this isn’t his first turn through the court system. When he was running from the law, he was also wanted for theft from earlier this year. In 2006 he was arrested for burglary and theft, a case for which prosecutors are now trying to revoke his probation. Yet another burglary case is also pending, this one from last year.

Larsen, meanwhile, was jailed on counts of criminal mischief and providing false information. She awaits a resolution of a forgery case, which, according to court records, was filed last year.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.