Delayed; Judge allows additional time before sentencing of the first convicted of four accused in 2016 murder of Palmer teen

PALMER — Erick Almandinger, the first of the four charged with the murder of Palmer teen David Grunwald on November 13, 2016, began his sentencing hearings in Palmer Superior Court on Wednesday in front of Judge Gregory Heath.

Heath will allow the defense three weeks time to provide a psychological analysis for Almanginer, who appeared in his orange jumpsuit and short hair. The state’s prosecutors, District Attorney Roman Kalytiak and Assistant DA Melissa Wininger-Howard, are asking for a 217-year sentence, while Almandinger’s attorney John Iannaccone is asking for a 35-year sentence. Both sides presented similar cases that they feel support their argument for sentencing.

“Legally it’s a different standard and legally there is not deliberate cruelty here,” Iannaccone said. “Erick pays a heavy price for all of those inactions, he’s going to be sentenced to a minimum of 35 years.”

Iannaccone referenced a handful of cases where the most serious aggravator for the murder in the first degree charge was or was not applied. Many in which it were applied involve torture or holding the victim captive. Iannaccone argued that Almandinger’s actions were not premeditated or gratuitously violent.

“The facts of the case as they came out, this was not a planned thing by Erick in any way,” Iannaccone said. “This is a half hour of spontaneous things that were unexpectedly imposed on my client when he was high on marijuana, there’s certainly those differences. We could go back and forth on who’s bad and who’s less bad, but the fact of the matter is it’s two 16-year-old defendants in high publicity, bad homicide cases being sentenced in this courthouse for murder 1 and I don’t know how you can come to a conclusion that Erick Almandinger is worse than she is or worse to justify a 217-year sentence.”

Wininger-Howard’s arguments focused on the lack of action to stop the murder. Wininger-Howard reiterated that Grunwald was locked in a bathroom, pistol whipped and then forced to identify the key that would start his Ford Bronco. On the way to Knik River Road where he would ultimately be shot, Wininger-Howard mentioned that co defendants in the case were taunting Grunwald by telling him they were taking him to a nurse.

“To put someone through that there would have to be no other reason than for the gratification of it,” Wininger-Howard said. “It’s the state’s position that it had to be for the thrill of it, because there was no other real motive for this it’s a senseless killing.”

Wininger-Howard mentioned that if Almandinger was helpless to stop what was happening, he had multiple opportunities to intervene and stop the murder, but didn’t. Iannaccone noted that the portion of Almandinger’s interview where he described the drive turned out to be accurate.

“His behavior of still hanging out with his friends, the co defendants, his behavior of still continuing to party with his carefree lifestyle, destroying evidence, lying, no remorse, no sympathy, no care for David Grunwald, no care for David Grunwald’s family and what they were going through through 19 days, I think that’s also evidence that what this was was just simply deliberate cruelty,” Wininger-Howard said.

Iannaccone not only noted the Grey case, but a similar case that occurred following a drug deal gone bad in Anchorage. The defendants were caught on video in a similar execution-style murder, but given much more lenient sentences.

“Why 40 miles north are we talking about 217 years, and 40 miles south we’re talking about 30 years,” Iannaccone said.

Iannaccone noted that there is no corroborating evidence that Almandinger did anything within the Bronco to inflict physical or psychological pain.

“This is weird making these arguments because I’m arguing like more grim cases to distinguish them from a grim case but that’s what the law is here,” Iannaccone said.

Iannaccone also noted that a case that Judge Heath had defended and a previous case that Kalytiak had defended, attempting to show that 217 years to serve in prison was too harsh.

“It’s not torture it’s not anything like that it’s doing something stupid and then covering up the stupid thing by doing something incredibly bad,” Iannaccone said. “We don’t sentence somebody more harshly because of who the victim is.”

The State’s prosecutors continued to note that not only physical, but emotional pain was caused to Grunwald, due to the fact that he and Almandinger had developed a friendship.

“The cases that are similar to this one we can probably count on less than five fingers,” Kalytiak said.

Contact Frontiersman reporter Tim Rockey at tim.rockey@frontiersman.com.