Indictment list grows to six in Gladney murder

PALMER — Authorities expanded the indictments in the murder of Anchorage resident Weston Gladney in late December to include charges for Jeffrey Enosa, 31, as well as Joseph Kimo Ahuna, 42 and Paulette Pilialoha Kane, 33. Shawn Michael Phillips, 48, was indicted by a Palmer grand jury for tampering with evidence, running the total charged in the killing to six, in addition to Brian Matthew Scheele, 56, and Helen Marie Them, 26, who were indicted last week.

A charge of reckless homicide was added to the list against Them, who will be arraigned Wednesday in a Palmer courthouse.

Police say the six conspired to murder Gladney in the garage of the residence of Scheele, and then conspired to move the body to the Jim Creek area of the Butte, where police discovered it on Dec. 5

The murder was believed to have taken place in Anchorage on Nov. 27, the city’s 35th of the year, exceeding the previous high of 34 set in 2016.

Troopers’ reports said Gladney’s body was unrecognizable upon discovery and had to be identified by a single thumb print. An autopsy determined Gladney had been killed by a shot through the upper chest.

A month before his death, Gladney had been incarcerated at Spring Creek Correctional Center in Seward. Investigators found that he had been communicating with Them from jail. In those calls, Gladney said he was going to see her and ‘surprise’ Them, whom police later learned was the mother of Gladney’s child, when he got out.

Acquaintances of Them told police she was afraid of Gladney because she feared he would become angry upon finding out the child wasn’t his.

It was in the garage at the home of Scheele, police report, that the slaying of Gladney took place.

On Dec. 11, police say they interviewed Them in jail, where she reportedly told them that “she did not know this was going to happen to Gladney but did suspect he was going to get ‘roughed up.’”

Scheele was arrested on charges of murder in the first degree, conspiracy to commit murder and tampering with evidence.