Nude subdivision visitor released

Nov. 7, 2006

By MARY AMES

Frontiersman

PALMER -A man arrested wearing nothing but his running shoes in a Settlers Bay subdivision in August has a serious criminal history, and was released from jail Wednesday with an ankle monitor.

Travis Felder, 32, allegedly was going door-to-door while nude in the subdivision when troopers received a call about 10 a.m. Aug. 31. Troopers took Felder into custody and charged him with second-degree indecent exposure and fourth degree criminal mischief, according to court records. Felder also was charged with resisting arrest, said Greg Wilkinson, trooper spokesman.

Felder's prior criminal history includes a no-contest plea to manslaughter, assault, robbery and evidence tampering in Anchorage, according to news reports from September 1992. As a result, he was sentenced to 17 years in prison, with 13 additional years suspended time, and was put on probation for five years.

News reports from 1992 said Felder, Guy Dubourg, 19, and two friends went to the apartment of Darnell Myers, then 20, to collect money from a drug debt at about 9 p.m. April 13, bringing along .9 mm and .45 caliber pistols. Felder and Dubourg began pistol whipping Myers, reports state, and as Felder used the .45 as a club, it discharged, struck Dubourg in the chest and killed him. Felder then shot Myers in the face and chased him down the hallway of the apartment building, firing at his back. Myers lived, but lost an eye.

One of the bullets was found lodged under a child's bed in another apartment, news reports state. Felder was charged with murder and attempted murder, reports said. The plea agreement in June 1992 allowed Superior Court Judge Karen Hunt to sentence Felder to up to 65 years in prison.

If Felder served two-thirds of his 17-year sentence, he would have been out of prison in 2003. Court records show charges of fourth-degree assault and providing false information against Felder in Anchorage in February 2003. Felder was fined $5,000, with $4,700 suspended, in March 2003 in the case, and a $1,000 warrant related to that case was issued for his arrest on Sept. 22, 2005.

In April 2004, Felder was charged with two counts of fourth-degree assault, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and fourth-degree misconduct involving a controlled substance in Anchorage.

On Oct. 1, 2004, Felder pleaded no contest to fourth-degree MICS, receiving a sentence of 545 days; and two counts of fourth-degree assault, receiving 90 days on each charge. The prosecution dismissed the rest of the charges, records show.

Felder entered into a plea agreement in Palmer District Court on Sept. 26. on the charges lodged in August, and the case was closed.

However, Superior Court Judge Beverly Cutler also ruled on bail for Felder's 1992 case, for which he still is on probation and parole.

Felder hired Chadwick McGrady as his defense attorney, and Joshua Fannon stood in for McGrady at the bail hearing, requesting Felder's $10,000 bond be reduced to no money, and that Felder be allowed out on a Department of Corrections ankle monitor, as agreed to by Felder's parole board and probation officer.

Cutler agreed to the ankle monitor, with the conditions that Felder continue to live at his home on Colony Drive in Wasilla, and go only to work, to court hearings, to verified attorney appointments, and to medical appointments to finish outpatient therapy at Akeela House in Anchorage.