Teen accused of killing another Valley teen appears in court for second straight day

PALMER — The teen accused of shooting and killing another teen inside a parked vehicle appeared in Palmer Superior Court for the second straight day Wednesday.

According to court documents, Jordan Flowers, 19, shot and killed Gunnar Swan, also 19, early on the morning of Jan. 27.

Flowers’ case was handed off to Judge Jonathan Woodman, who granted the prosecutors request to increase the bail amount from $100,000 to $500,000. However, the prosecutors’ attempt to keep Flowers from staying at his parents’ house while on ankle monitoring was denied. Flowers posted bail on Feb. 5 and showed up to court on Wednesday in street clothes. Flowers wore a yellow hoodie with blue jeans and black sneakers. Flowers held his mother and father during breaks.

Prosecutors have added charges of murder in the first and second degree to go along with manslaughter and the three counts of assault that Flowers was charged with previously.

Woodman stated that there was good cause to increase the bail amount, and Flowers will be remanded until he makes bail or at his next pre-trial conference on March 21. Flowers has a condition that he would be subject to searches of his home, vehicle, and person for firearms should he make bail. Public Defender Hatton Greer requested that Flowers be given a week to come up with the extra $400,000 for bail, and his request was denied. Woodman said that he made his decision based on the increased charges Flowers now faces. Woodman originally scheduled the hearing for 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, then postponed it until 2:30 p.m. and held a hearing on confidential matters that was not open to the public. When Woodman finally announced his decision at 3:45 p.m., Flowers held his head in his hands and was visibly disturbed sitting in the courtroom. Greer requested that the room be cleared of the public before Flowers was handcuffed and returned to custody. Greer’s request was again denied.

“You can ask, but the answer is no,” Woodman said.

Tuesday, the state prosecutors asked Judge Kari Kristiansen to increase Flowers’ bail from $100,000 to $500,000 and add a condition to prevent him from being in contact with firearms.

Public Defender Hatton Greer argued that the defense had not been given enough notice of the increase in bail, and that Flowers should be out already.

“He’s made bail. He should be released. I don’t know why he has not been released,” Greer said.

Greer repeatedly made mention to witnesses sitting in the gallery, asking if Kristiansen wanted to proceed. Kristiansen allowed the bail hearing to proceed, but did not issue an increase in bail.

“The state is concerned on several levels. One, that prior history of guns and threatening people with guns. Two, there’s not, to my knowledge, search conditions that allows PED to search the residence for firearms. I think that’s necessary considering the defendant’s history and three, this bail amount is really too low for the level of offense and the history of firearms that the defendant currently has. He’s threatened to kill one person previously and he succeeded in killing one person this time around. The state’s request is going to be at least $500,000 cash corporate and PED monitoring with a search condition for firearms in the residence and any vehicles the defendant is driving in and his person,” prosecutors said.

Greer said that he had no problem with the condition for firearms, but argued that the bail should not be increased when he had such short notice.

“There should be at least, if the defense has an objection, I think that they’re entitled to a short amount of time just so they can prepare for that hearing. This was filed today at 10:52 this morning,” Kristiansen said. “I’m not going to address bail amount today. I think that the notice is not adequate for the defense to respond to.”

Witnesses say Flowers shot and killed Swan while a group teenagers sat in a Jeep in a Meadow Lakes neighborhood early Sunday morning. According to court documents, Alaska State Troopers responded to a report of a shooting at about 2:30 a.m. Sunday and found Swan dead in the driver’s seat of the Jeep. A witness at the scene, Allen Hodgson, 18, told troopers he was in the passenger seat of the Jeep as Flowers sat directly behind Swan. During his interview with AST, Hodgson said, “Jordan produced a handgun, and a few moments later the gun discharged and Gunnar was struck in the neck with the bullet.”

Frontiersman managing editor Jeremiah Bartz contributed to this report. Contact Frontiersman reporter Tim Rockey at tim.rockey@frontiersman.com.