News & Notes

High-speed chase leads to arrest

WILLOW — An Anchorage driver is in jail after Alaska State Troopers say he sped up the Parks Highway, at times topping 100 miles per hour, nearly driving multiple vehicles off the road, then refusing to stop for troopers.

According to an Alaska State Trooper press statement, John Francis Sponaugle Jr., 39, of Anchorage was spotted passing cars in a no-passing zone, speeding and almost running multiple vehicles, including a semi-truck with a double load, off the highway shortly after 1 p.m. Monday.

Sponaugle led troopers on a mile-long chase before turning into a dead-end private driveway near Mile 84 Parks Highway, where he was arrested without further incident, troopers report.

Sponaugle was arrested for driving on a revoked license, violating his parole, reckless driving and eluding arrest. He was jailed at the Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility on $7,500.

Scratchy beard leads to standoff

WASILLA — A man upset when his girlfriend rebuffed him due to his scratchy beard sparked a standoff with Alaska State Troopers that eventually led to his arrest on weapons misconduct charges.

According to an affidavit Trooper Scott Bartlett filed in the case against Dustin Billings, 26, of Wasilla, Billings’ girlfriend summoned troopers to their Via Tranquilla apartment at around 4:39 p.m. Tuesday.

The girlfriend told troopers she and Billings had been drinking and were getting intimate when she pushed him away because his beard was scratching her, Bartlett says in the affidavit. The girlfriend said she went outside to have a cigarette, during which time Billings stepped out the door to yell at her multiple times, at one point pointing a .22-caliber Glock pistol at his head and shouting something along the lines of, “Is this what you want?” Bartlett wrote.

Billings refused to come out of the house, but eventually “it was decided that Billings was no longer a threat to himself and troopers left the scene,” the affidavit says. Troopers later applied for an arrest warrant and arrested Billings the next day on charges of being a felon in possession of a weapon and being intoxicated while possessing a weapon. He was jailed at the Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility on $5,000 bail.