Final chapter for Halloween bandits, burglars

PALMER — At least as far as the state courts are concerned, the tale of the 2007 robbery of eight trick-or-treaters in Talkeetna has reached its conclusion.

Friday, over the course of the afternoon, Superior Court Judge Beverly Cutler handed out sentences to Kendra Butts, 20, Amber Martin, 21, and Michael Scott Wilson, 26. A fourth defendant, Aaron Tolen, 26, pleaded guilty to burglary and, in December, received a seven-year sentence.

Friday, Wilson went first. He and Tolen were not involved in the stick-up. Instead, they showed up later at a Talkeetna-area bar in the truck the children described for troopers. Eventually, troopers tied them to eight Talkeetna-area burglaries. During the proceedings, attorneys seemed to agree that all eight break-ins took place over the course of two days.

Cutler had little to decide. Prosecutor Trina Sears and Wilson’s attorney Gregory Parvin had negotiated a 10-year prison term. The judge did not object.

But that’s not to say the proceedings weren’t dramatic. Everett Muncy described for Cutler the damage Wilson and Tolen did to a 10-acre private campground near Mile 81 Parks Highway where he’d planned to retire.

He said they cut a lock on his gate and broke into his property. To get past his metal door, “they took a sledge hammer and beat it in, almost in half.”

Then, he said, they stole just about everything they could lay their hands on – even going so far as to roll up his rugs. They stole two of his pickups, a trailer and a fifth-wheel. Muncy estimated his losses at more than $50,000.

He choked up when talking about how his son had died just prior to the burglary.

“They took everything that my son had there,” he said. He’d been storing his late son’s things at the place while figuring out what to do with them. Most haven’t been recovered.

And, he said, Tolen and Wilson didn’t stop with theft. They stabbed a knife into the wall above his bed. They ran over a brand-new washer and dryer he just bought. And they used his guns to shoot out the streetlights on his property.

Wilson, for his part, gave a brief statement.

“I’d just like to say that I’m sorry to all my victims,” he said and, turning to Muncy, added, “I’m really sorry.”

The hearings for Butts and Martin were more contested. Each had previously entered guilty pleas to a single count of robbery and agreed to a sentence somewhere in the range of seven to 11 years.

Butts went first.

Sears, in arguing for a sentence of 11 years, with three suspended, pointed out that rarely does the court see violent crimes of this nature perpetrated on children.

“Their lives were forever changed by the actions of Miss Butts,” Sears said.

And while Butts might not have pointed the gun at the kids – interviews with Butts and Martin indicate Martin wielded the gun – Sears pointed out that she certainly showed little remorse.

“According to all the children that were interviewed, she laughed,” as Martin held the gun on them, Sears said.

Butts’ attorney, Lyle Stohler, argued for 11 years, with four suspended, for seven years to serve.

“She was 18 years old,” Stohler said. “She was the youngest in the group, both in age and in criminal history.”

Reacting to Sears’ concerns that even when ordered not to communicate with Wilson she tried to write him a letter, Stohler pointed out that the letters told Wilson to pray and to try to turn his life around.

“The positive tone of that letter, I think, should be more comforting to the court than a cause of concern,” Stohler said.

For her part, Butts told Cutler she’d earned her high school diploma while awaiting a resolution for her case. She plans to start college classes and is in drug treatment to kick the methamphetamine addiction that fueled her crimes.

“I know the victims aren’t here but I still would like to apologize for my behavior and my actions against the victims and their families,” Butts said.

Cutler eventually sided with Stohler, sentencing Butts to 11 years with four suspended.

While that may seem to be on the lower end of the spectrum, Cutler said that usually in cases like this, with someone as young as Butts, the defendant is allowed to plead to a charge less serious than robbery.

She commended prosecutors for deciding not to let that happen. The sentences, she said, are saying to the victims and the community, “We are calling this a robbery. We are not going to back off here,’”

When Martin’s came turn, Sears asked for a much stiffer sentence –11 years to serve.

She read from Martin’s juvenile record that included threatening a staff member at the McLaughlin Youth Center with a rock and another person with a crowbar. Martin, Sears said, started using meth at age 14, and really hadn’t stopped.

“She has a history of failing at treatment and failing at probation,” Sears said.

Far from being a prank, Martin actually thought she saw the children with money and thus targeted them after deciding not to rob a convenience store.

And, Sears pointed out, Martin wielded the gun and fired off a round to scare the children into compliance.

J. Randall Luffberry, Martin’s attorney, disagreed with Sears’ assessment.

“I don’t think that there is much of a difference between the two individuals,” he said, noting that Martin and Butts had planned and executed the robbery as a team.

He also pointed out that his client had taken advantage of the limited opportunities she had to better herself in jail and, like Butts, had earned a high school diploma.

But unlike Butts, who gave police a fake name to elude capture, “Amber Martin was the first to be apprehended. Why? Because she didn’t lie about who she was.”

Martin, when it came her time to speak, said she hoped, after prison, to turn things around and stop heading down the lawless path.

“My main goal is to become a positive example in life,” she said, and help educate young people.

Cutler eventually decided on an 11-year term with 18 months suspended, for nine and a half years to serve.

“It seems like you’re recognizing that actually being arrested for this may have saved you from a much worse fate,” Cutler told Martin.

In addition to their state cases, all four defendants were charged with offenses in federal court. Martin and Butts both pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice charges and received six-month terms that will run consecutive — added on – to their state terms. Tolen pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm and received 98 months, also consecutive to his state term. Wilson awaits a sentence in federal court.

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