Rape suspect indicted in two Valley cases

A Palmer grand jury Thursday indicted a rape suspect on nine counts associated with two sexual assaults on Valley women.

Micah J. Beshaw, 26, was indicted on two counts of kidnapping, five counts of first-degree sexual assault and two counts of second-degree assault.

He was arrested Jan. 11 in connection with kidnapping and sexual assault charges for allegedly attacking a 54-year-old woman walking home from work last fall. Though he was also suspected in the rape of a local teen-ager, he was not officially charged with that crime until the grand jury's indictment Wednesday.

Friday afternoon he appeared at his arraignment in Palmer Superior Court before Judge Beverly Cutler. Beshaw's attorney, assistant public defender Rachel Levitt, entered a not-guilty plea on his behalf. His trial is set for April 15, with a preliminary hearing scheduled for Feb. 15.

A Palmer grand jury indicted Beshaw on new sexual assault charges Thursday, charging him in connection with the Sept. 30 rape of a 16-year-old. The case was investigated by Palmer police. The original charges stemmed only from the Alaska State Trooper investigation of the Sept. 22 rape.

The grand jury heard two days of testimony from 15 witnesses. Their testimony is confidential at the grand jury stage.

So far evidence gathered in both cases, listed in Alaska State Trooper reports, includes items taken from Beshaw's 1991 dark-red Ford truck and DNA reports from the state crime lab.

That evidence includes a blanket Beshaw allegedly used to cover his victim's heads as he drove them to places where they were raped. There was also a Polaroid photo of one of the victims, and a bra described by one of the victims as hers lost in the scuffle. A DNA test was performed on a strand of hair found on the blanket, which matched one of the victims, according to the trooper reports.

Trooper investigator Leonard Wallner also submitted tire-track molds taken from the crime scenes to the state crime lab. At the scene, the day after the Sept. 22 attack, Wallner noted "elongated scuff marks consistent with the dragging of person were noted to angle across the driveway and into a flat grassy area on the opposite side."

At the crime scene in Sutton where Beshaw is suspected of dropping off his victim, Wallner documented tire tracks "consistent both in size and pattern to those found at the point of the (previous victim's) abduction," he said in his report.

Victims had described the vehicle's seat as "bench style, the surface of which was course and rough to the touch." The seat on the seized 1991 truck belonging to Beshaw was found to match this description, the report stated.

The victims also described their attacker as having worn dark clothing, gloves and a black knit hat. These were also found in the truck, covered in leaf vegetation, according to trooper reports.

One of the victims had described having a ball placed inside her mouth during the attack to keep her from screaming. A small rubber ball also was found in the truck.

When troopers interviewed those who stayed at the Daron Street apartment with Beshaw, testimony conflicted about where Beshaw was on the night of the Sept. 22 attack.

One said he believed Beshaw was in his room listening to music. Another of the residents said that "she was pretty sure about Beshaw leaving the residence that night because of his truck, which has a loud engine and that Beshaw was always leaving (his girlfriend) at home," according to the police report.

But on the night of the attack, his girlfriend told police, Beshaw was at home with her, documents said.