Grand jury adds 1st-degree murder charge in Gray shooting

KNIK FAIRVIEW — A Wasilla woman faces first-degree murder charges in addition to second-degree murder in the April 5 shooting death of a 76-year-old Wasilla man.

April L. Cox, 27, of Williwaw, was arraigned April 6 in District Court on two counts of second-degree murder for shooting Phillip Gray, 76, at his house in a neighborhood off Knik-Goose Bay Road.

A grand jury added a single count of first-degree murder and a single count of manslaughter to the indictment April 10, court documents show.

The multiple counts stem from the requirement in Alaska court to issue a separate charge for each possible contingency, known as “charge every theory.”

An Alaska State Trooper affidavit originally provided by the courts started with Cox’s emergence from some woods along Horizon Drive on the afternoon of Easter Sunday.

The court file contains more detail. According to a supplemental affidavit filed by district attorney Roman Kalytiak, Cox told troopers she had lived in Gray’s residence in the past. Troopers told Kalytiak that Gray had died of a single gunshot wound to the head.

“April Cox told Alaska State Troopers that yesterday (April 5) while she was in Phillip Gray’s residence, Phillip Gray threatened her with a handgun, and she wrestled it away from him and shot him,” Kalytiak wrote.

That account is consistent with several outbursts by Cox during her District Court arraignment when she loudly and repeatedly claimed the shooting was in self-defense, despite warnings from presiding magistrate judge Tara Logsdon.

The court record contains no mention of Janelle Marquis, whom assistant district attorney William Perry said may have a connection to the shooting.

Witnesses told troopers Cox emerged from the woods barefoot, with blood on her hands, and asked witnesses for help burying the body of a person she had just shot, according to earlier court documents.

Cox also asked for a ride to the Goose Bay landing strip — which does not maintain regular flight service — so she could catch an out-bound flight, according to the affidavit.

Court officials arraigned Cox on the grand jury indictment April 13. She was held at Hiland Mountain Correctional Center in Eagle River April 14 on $100,000 bond.

Marquis remained in Mat-Su Pretrial on a $5,000 bond with court-appointed third-party custodial requirements.

Contact Brian O’Connor at 352-2269, brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com, or on Twitter @reporterbriano.