Police, courts kept busy

January 1, 2006

MARY AMES\Frontiersman staff

A plethora of events kept police and the Palmer courts busy throughout 2005. Some of the more notable events included the following:

January

€ Shane Harapat was sentenced to five years in prison for manslaughter. A jury three months earlier had found the former Palmer High School rifle team member guilty of manslaughter for shooting his friend, Kenneth Alcantra, 16, with a .44-caliber Magnum Ruger Redhawk revolver on Feb. 5, 2003 as the two sat in Harapat's bedroom in Palmer. Harapat was 16 years old when the shooting occurred, and he was tried as an adult.

€ Tariek Oviuk, 23, of Point Hope, was charged with attempted murder in a Jan. 17 attack on Grace Oomittuk, 23, who suffered deep cuts on her face and head and was treated for multiple knife wounds on her arms, legs, back and head. Alaska State Troopers responded to the scene after dispatchers determined the location of a disconnected 911 call from a cell phone. When the original call was disconnected, dispatchers called the number back and heard a woman pleading in the background, saying she would stay with the suspect and marry him if that's what he wanted. A Palmer jury later found Oviuk guilty of first-degree attempted murder and second-degree assault for the attack.

€ Suzette Welton, a former day-care worker serving 99 years in prison for killing one son and trying to kill another in a Nov. 15, 2000 house fire she set in hopes of collecting $200,000 in life insurance after their deaths, filed a petition for post-conviction relief in Palmer Superior Court. Welton claimed in her filing that her trial judge, Anchorage Superior Court Judge Milton Souter, should not have denied her motion for a judgment of acquittal and should have admitted the out-of-court statement of a witness she considered helpful to her defense.

February

€ Troopers responding to an abandoned-vehicle complaint found the body of Jeremiah C. Butler, 26, in his pickup on Barry's Resort Road on Feb. 14, with a gunshot wound to his upper torso. A suspicious fire blazed in a small cabin only a mile away. In August, police arrested seven men on charges stemming from Butler's slaying, Claude Hale of Wasilla, the alleged triggerman, among them. Others arrested were Michael P. Bay Sr., Michael P. Bay Jr., Timothy D. Jones, Scott A. Schaffer, William E. Bogart and Louis Moon.

March

€ A trial date was postponed for Michael A. Lawson, who was arrested in 2004 for the May 2003 murder of former Talkeetna resident Bethany Correira, 21, who had moved to Anchorage to attend college just days before she vanished. Correira's skeletal remains were found in the Trapper Creek area a year after her disappearance. Anchorage police arrested Lawson on Feb. 19, 2004. He was charged with first- and second-degree murder, kidnapping, conspiracy, arson, tampering with evidence and misconduct involving weapons charges stemming from Correira's death.

€ Valley law enforcement uncovered three methamphetamine labs in five days, including a house where firefighters responded to a fire started by a 6-year-old boy playing with gasoline and a lighter behind the house. Firefighters tipped off the Mat-Su Narcotics Unit, which responded after the fire was out and confirmed that the materials inside were meth-related.

April

€ The U.S. Department of Justice axed funding for the Mat-Su Narcotics Unit. Two of the five positions were at stake. Last year, Alaska received about $2.2 million in Byrne grants. This year, it will get just over $900,000, according to Lt. Ed Harrington of the Alaska State Troopers. &#8220The Byrne grant has been the biggest supporter of drug investigation statewide. And we're looking at a 65 to 70 percent reduction in FY06,” he said.

€ Bonnie Pigott, of Sacramento, filed a wrongful-death lawsuit April 13 in Palmer Superior Court against Big Lake pastor Phillip D. Mielke, who was acquitted of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide charges on Nov. 5, 2003, in the slayings of Pigott's son, Frank Marion Jones IV and Christopher Palmer at the Big Lake Community Chapel during the early morning hours of April 24, 2003. Just under the April 24 statutory deadline, Pigott, representing the estate of her son, is seeking more than $100,000 in damages for Jones' mortal wounds.

€ A jury found Bruce Tice guilty of criminally negligent homicide, first-degree assault, two counts of reckless endangerment and driving under the influence for driving a 1983 Subaru station wagon that crashed in 2003, killing his former lover's 5-year-old daughter. Jurors convicted that woman, Shelly Maddux, of hindering prosecution, a class C felony, because she claimed she was driving when the crash occurred, revealing the truth a year later after a grand jury witness told prosecutors he saw a man driving the car that day. Palmer Superior Court Judge Eric Smith, later in 2005, sentenced Tice to 25 years in prison and said he didn't buy Tice's suggestion that it was all Maddux's idea to lie to police

€ Alaska State Troopers arrested former Republican state legislator Beverly Masek for driving under the influence with a suspended license as she drove under the speed limit near Mile 58 Parks Hwy and drifted over the center line several times at 1:34 a.m. April 28. Masek was transported to Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility and released on her own recognizance.

May

€ Law-enforcement officers may use &#8220reasonable force” against convicts who refuse DNA swabs, according to a bill signed into law May 5 by Gov. Frank Murkowski.

The sample comes from a mouth swab, not a blood sample. It is a Class C felony to refuse collection of DNA for the state and national databases. Both felons and those convicted of misdemeanors must allow samples to be taken when asked.

€ An omnibus anti-meth bill stalled May 4 in the Alaska Legislature's Senate Finance Committee, which is chaired by Sen. Lyda Green, a Mat-Su Republican. Chances for its rebirth will arise when the next legislative session begins.

€ A hunter leaving a campsite on the Little Susitna River found the body of Terell LaVar Houngues, 23, of Anchorage, about a half-mile down a four-wheeler trail. Troopers later arrested Kira Gray, 16, and Mario Page, 20, saying they participated in the kidnapping and fatal shooting of Houngues. Once arrested, Kira and Page identified their accomplices as Frederick Sherman &#8220Sherm” Johnson, 22, and Tommie &#8220T.P.” G. Patterson, 25, both of Anchorage.

June

€ Kathleen Colbert, of Talkeetna, shot and killed her husband, Gary Colbert, at home June 3 after an evening of drinking and fighting, according to troopers. When Kathleen Colbert tried to call 911 to report her husband had assaulted her, he took the phone away, and Kathleen then retrieved a handgun from their bedroom and fired one round at Gary, striking him in the head and causing his death. Colbert called 911 to report that she had shot and killed her husband. A Palmer grand jury indicted Kathleen Colbert in September on charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter, fourth-degree misconduct involving weapons and, for a separate incident, driving under the influence.

€ A Palmer Superior Court jury convicted Aaron Butler of first- and second-degree murder in the March 26, 2003 stabbing of his mother, Grace Butler, 54. Butler stabbed his mother at least 88 times and allowed her to bleed to death. Palmer Assistant Public Defender George Davenport accused someone else: Aaron's drug source. Butler was sentenced to 99 years in prison.

July

€ Bonnie L. Weys, 58, died July 3 after firefighters dragged her out of her burning house. Weys woke up trapped by smoke in her bedroom on the second story of her Cottonwood Shores home and called 911. Her son, 24-year-old Timothy Weys, was sleeping downstairs. He told troopers he tried to get her out, but couldn't get to her through the smoke. In August, Timothy Weys pleaded no contest to a first-degree murder charge brought against him after he admitted setting the fire.

€ Suzette Welton, serving 99 years in prison on first-degree murder, first-degree attempted murder and first-degree arson convictions stemming from a Sept. 15, 2000 fire that killed her son Samuel, is trying to claim $112,519.64 in insurance proceeds from a policy she took out on Samuel's life three months before the fire. The case is being handled in Anchorage Superior Court.

€ Maintenance workers boarded up 51 broken window panes at Tanaina Elementary School after four teenage girls from the Wasilla area went on a rock-throwing spree. A man who lives on the other side of trees that line the grounds saw the vandals leaving the scene and called 911 around 10:30 that night.

€ Niobie Lee Ewing pleaded no contest in Palmer Superior Court to the August 2004 murder of Thomas Bourbeau, 56, at the Finger Lakes home they shared. Ewing faces 40-60 years in prison after agreeing to a plea bargain that lessened the severity of her charges.

€ Mark Ruby, a former emergency medical technician now living on disability, filed a civil rights lawsuit in federal court against the commissioner of the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services, the head of the Office of Children's Services and a Children's Services social worker, claiming he was never given the opportunity to challenge their claim that he molested his daughter, and was denied employment because of it - without his knowledge - for several years.

The state later settled with Ruby for $5,000 and attorney fees.

€ A southbound Alaska Railroad passenger train hit and killed Austin Allen Webb-Heise, 13, near Willow on July 15. A friend he had been with managed to jump out of the way in time to escape serious injury.

August

€ Nicolas Alan Hill, 20, of Wasilla, escaped from a trooper patrol car with handcuffs on as the trooper helped victims of a traffic accident at Mile 65 Parks Hwy. Hill was found dead in Nancy Lake a week later with his hands still cuffed behind his back.

€ A Palmer grand jury opted not to indict a Big Lake man who allegedly ran over and killed an 18-month-old boy in his neighbor's driveway a year ago. Troy R. Huls allegedly backed his three-quarter-ton Dodge pickup over George Woodbury IV on the afternoon of July 25, 2004, after his parents left the toddler momentarily unattended.

September

€ A Palmer police officer shot Shawn McCrary, a Palmer taxidermist, at the home of McCrary's estranged wife. Palmer police and troopers went to the South Gulkana Street home to serve a search warrant and an arrest warrant for violation of a domestic-violence restraining order, according to a press release issued by Palmer police.

McCrary, who was reportedly armed with a handgun, refused to comply and threatened to commit suicide. After a 30-minute standoff, McCrary allegedly made a threatening movement with his handgun, and was shot by Officer Lance Ketterling. Because troopers and Palmer police were on the scene at the time of the shooting, the Anchorage Police Department was asked to investigate the shooting.

€ Robert Hale of McCarthy was arraigned in Palmer Superior Court on charges of incest, kidnapping and sexual assault for allegedly having sex with one of his daughters over an eight-year period. Hale allegedly eluded troopers who tried to pick him at his property about 14 miles outside McCarthy, and was captured near Eagle River in his camper van and brought to Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility.

October

€ Christopher Kevan was charged with strangling his girlfriend, Brandie Burns, 26, and their 7-week-old son, Ashton, in their home on Oct. 26. Kevan, 24, was arraigned on two counts of first-degree murder.

€ Four people in three separate alleged meth labs were arrested on the same day in the Butte.

November

€ Richard &#8220Bart” Deremer III of Big Lake was found guilty of first-degree murder, first-degree arson, second-degree theft and tampering with physical evidence in the death of David McKinney 49, of Big Lake, in a 2003 murder-for-drugs case. Deremer and his wife, Cynthia Estes, who will be tried separately, were charged in 2004 with planning the murder of his wife's cousin, killing him with a shotgun blast to the head, looting McKinney's safe and setting a fire that burned his house, in order to destroy incriminating evidence. After four weeks in Superior Court Judge Eric Smith's courtroom, the jury spent barely four hours deliberating before they returned with guilty verdicts on all counts except the second-degree murder charge.

December:

€ Laurie McCutcheon, 49, a longtime Mat-Su Borough medic, died in a fire that destroyed her Willow home.

€ Eugene Gordon was convicted by a Palmer Superior Court jury of breaking into a Four Corners home and fatally shooting Jesus &#8220Jesse” Manglona, 51, who was sound asleep, in bed, next to Gordon's former long-term girlfriend. Jurors returned with guilty verdicts on charges of first-degree murder, second-degree murder, first-degree attempted murder, two counts of second-degree murder, manslaughter and third-degree assault in the Dec. 14, 2004, slaying of Manglona and assault on Laurie Welsh, who had been involved with Gordon until a few weeks before the slaying.