Teens charged with beating

PALMER -- Four arrests were made in the near-fatal beating of a Sutton man who was left for dead on Christmas Eve after being attacked by teens.

Police arrested Brandon Wallace, Hanley Bannon, Russell Blakeman and Sarah MacCallum, all 17-year-olds, on charges of second-degree assault in connection with the beating of Brian Blubaugh. The three boys were taken into custody at the Mat-Su Youth Facility while the MacCallum remains out of custody awaiting her arraignment.

Second-degree assault is a Class B felony, which means the teens were not automatically waived into adult court, said Sean Owens, supervisor of probations at Mat-Su Youth Facility. Victims and family can attend the hearing, but confidentiality laws protect the minors in closed court proceedings. The teens' names and ages, however, are disclosable under the Juvenile Disclosure Law that took effect in 1998, allowing the names of juveniles to be released based on the person's age, criminal history and severity of the alleged crime.

Blubaugh, 36, was brutally beaten and left in an abandoned house on Christmas Eve. Alaska State Troopers received a call just before 4 a.m., Dec. 24 from a resident saying that a severely injured man had knocked on the door of his home and asked for help.

Blubaugh had crawled or walked 200 yards in below-zero cold, over snow and frozen ground to get to help, said George Cordero, chief peace officer for the Chickaloon Village Tribal Council.

Sometime between 11 p.m. that night and the early morning hours, Blubaugh was taken to an abandoned trailer on Grand Avenue in Sutton. The trailer, a broken-down van and a shack, are known to young people of the area as shelter for parties, Cordero said.

Though initially the atmosphere appeared to be one of social drinking, at some point Blubaugh was beaten with a log and a two-by-four. The suspects then poured hot wax over his head and face, Cordero said, and urinated on him.

Blubaugh spent a week at Valley Hospital, treated for internal injuries broken eardrums and head injury.

His parents were upset that the case took so long to result in any arrests, but felt relief this week when the arrests were made, Betty Blubaugh said.

In the preceding months, the Blubaughs contacted Sen. Ted Stevens, Gov. Tony Knowles' office, the Alaska Federation of Natives, state senators and met with FBI agents in regards to what they perceive as a lack of response to the case. Blubaugh is an Alaska Native, and his parents believe the attack was racially motivated.

"I think they would like to sweep the whole thing under the rug and forget it, because charges were not made soon after it all happened. Maybe they'll slap these guys on the wrist and that will be it," Forest Blubaugh said.

Being tried as a juvenile is different from being tried as an adult, Owens said, but each case is taken very seriously by the Division of Juvenile Justice. If convicted, the teens will be looked at differently in terms of treatment and sentencing.

"We are at the early stages of prosecuting this case," Owens said. "We don't have guilt or innocence out of he way yet. There's a ways to go before we see how this turns out."