Supreme court sides with murderer on appeal

MAT-SU — It started with two pills found in his prison locker, but on Thursday a man doing time for a grisly Big Lake homicide got the state’s highest court to agree with him.

Richard B. DeRemer III was sentenced in 2006 to 134 years in prison following his conviction for murder and arson in the slaying of his cousin. DeRemer shot David McKinney with a shotgun while he slept, stole pills from his house, then burned the place down to cover his tracks.

But the case at hand had nothing to do with that; rather, with two pills found in DeRemer’s locker in 2010.

“The officer alleged in an incident report that DeRemer had ‘admitted the pills were his and stated the pills were Demerol,’” according to the ruling.

DeRemer, meanwhile, claimed the pills were ibuprofen. He contested the discipline he received as a result and was given a hearing, but was not allowed to call a nurse to testify whether he got the pills properly and if the prison had ever dispensed Demerol.

The officer that found the pills also didn’t testify. Still, DeRemer was found guilty of hoarding medications.

DeRemer appealed to state court where he was again denied when a judge sided with the state.

The prison had since destroyed all of its records of DeRemer’s hearing, but the judge said he wasn’t allowed to reverse the discipline just because of that. So, having to rely on the evidence at hand, he relied on the statement from the guard that DeRemer had admitted the pills were his and that they were Demerol.

He appealed that to the Supreme Court of Alaska.

On Thursday, that court found the judge in the appeal should have showed DeRemer the right way to challenge the lack of an audio recording and the fee of $128 he was ordered to pay to search for those nonexistent records.

“The Superior Court had a duty to advise DeRemer of the correct method of challenging the record preparation fee and the loss of the audio recording, both of which DeRemer sought to challenge,” according to the Supreme Court’s ruling.

The court basically revived the appeal that had been dismissed, sending the case back down to the lower court for a decision on whether DeRemer’s right to due process was violated in his prison disciplinary hearing.

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270 or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.