Murder, molestation, porn occupy court

August 28, 2005

KATE KELLY/Frontiersman reporter

PALMER - Men accused of murder, sexual abuse and child porn occupied spots in Palmer's court schedule earlier this week.

The peculiar parade included Timothy Weys, charged with murdering his mother by setting her house on fire July 4; MTA engineer William McKechnie, charged with secretly videotaping his girlfriend's young children in the bath and viewing child porn on the Internet; school bus driver Bruce Kittredge, charged with trying to molest a 7-year-old girl in a tent, and Aaron Hunter, charged with two counts of sexual abuse of a minor after allegedly having sex with two juveniles who became pregnant.

The men were all scheduled for pre-indictment hearings before Palmer District Magistrate David Zwink on Friday, but a grand jury indictment handed up Thursday drew Weys over to Palmer Superior Court, where he was arraigned Friday on charges of first-degree murder, first-degree arson, first-degree murder (second theory), three counts of second-degree murder, one count of manslaughter, one count of attempted first-degree criminal mischief and one count of evidence tampering. Weys' pretrial conference has been set for 1:15 p.m. Oct. 17, and Superior Court Judge Beverly Cutler scheduled a trial call for Nov. 21 at 3 p.m.

Weys, 24, reportedly confessed to police that he intentionally set a fire in his mother's Wasilla home in order to help her find a new home with the insurance money, but claims he did not mean for his mother to die in the late-night blaze in early July.

Only one of his seven siblings, his older brother Scott, believes he didn't want his mother to die, although he said Tim might have finally snapped after suffering what he claimed were years of abuse from his mother.

"It was not a happy childhood," Scott Weys, 33, said recently, revealing scars he claimed he received from his mother.

Other hearings set for Friday in Palmer District Court involved:

€ Kittredge, who works with children at a YMCA, is a lifeguard at Buckner Pool on Fort Richardson and drives a school bus for the Anchorage School District. He was charged Monday with second-degree sexual abuse of a minor, attempted second-degree sexual abuse of a minor and kidnapping, after the mother of a 7-year-old Wasilla girl reported he tried to molest her daughter in a tent on June 26-27 while he was teaching her camping skills before she headed to Girl Scout camp.

The 48-year-old Anchorage man on Monday admitted to Alaska State Troopers investigators that he asked the young girl to touch his penis and then kept her from leaving the tent so she wouldn't tell her parents, but he didn't know why he had done it. The girl told investigators that although Kittredge was only wearing his briefs in the tent, he never actually exposed himself to her.

When the girl's mother first confronted Kittredge about her daughter's statement that he wouldn't allow her to leave the tent, he first told her he was just playing and that he told the girl she could go if she wanted to.

Then he told the mother that he "has thought about this every day. That he was afraid that he had messed up [the girl]." He then started to talk about killing himself, according to Trooper Investigator Curtis Vik's affidavit.

"Kittredge stated he's not that kind of person and said several times that he needs to get some counseling," the affidavit stated.

Palmer District Judge John Wolfe, at a hearing Friday afternoon, reduced Kittredge's bail from $25,000 cash to $25,000 cash or corporate bond, a change that allows him to pay only 10 percent of the amount in order to be released.

Assistant District Attorney Stephen Wallace objected to the reduction, and to the judge's approval of a third-party custodian who has known Kittredge since June, has a medical disability and whose driver's license is suspended.

A pre-indictment hearing for Kittredge is set for 10 a.m. Sept. 9, before Magistrate Zwink.

€ McKechnie, 35, of Albert Hill in Palmer, who has pleaded not guilty to felony possession of child pornography, two counts of the class B felony of unlawful exploitation of a minor, and two counts of the class C felony of indecent viewing after his new girlfriend, whom he met on the Internet, stumbled on "hundreds" of porn sites on his laptop computer, then found out he'd been videotaping her and her young children with a camera hidden behind a wall.

He has been out on $20,000 bail since the end of July to enable him to work while awaiting further court action. His preliminary hearing has been set for Oct. 7.

€ Hunter, 22, of Palmer, who allegedly had sexual relationships with two minor girls who ended up getting pregnant. One of the victims provided proof of paternity to corroborate her allegation. A preliminary hearing in his case is set for Sept. 30.