Valley law enforcement, courts were kept busy in 2002

To register or not

In the court scene, 2002 began with a familiar question: "To register or not to register?" Alaska's sex offender registration put before the court in 1994 was again before the 9th Circuit Court in January. That court ruled that listing defendants whose crimes were committed before the registry law was enacted -- on May 12, 1994 -- violates Alaska statute. The Alaska Attorney General's office appealed the 9th Circuit Court's decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. Attorneys pursuing the case cited many problems with Alaska's sex offender registry.

U.S. District Court Judge H. Russel Holland then directed the state not to publish information about sex offenders convicted of offenses prior to Aug. 10, 1994. As a result, Public Safety's online registry was closed down for a short time while the names were removed. The ruling affected about 65 percent of the 4,300 offenders that were on the Web site. Meanwhile, attorneys Verne Rupright and Darryl Thompson continued the argument that the registry does not give enough information on the site to allow people to determine meaningful differences between the offenders.

Meanwhile, sex offenders whose crimes were committed before May 1994 are not required to register, however, they were instructed to keep apprised of the case and will be notified if registration is again required.

Murder, attempted murder

The case of Suzette Welton came to a close after a Palmer jury found the 39-year-old woman guilty of first-degree murder, two counts of attempted murder and first-degree arson in May.

During the seven-week trial, prosecutors laid out their case charging that Welton took out insurance on her teen-age boys, drugged them, then started the fire that killed her 14-year-old son Samuel. Her defense attorneys tried to show that Welton was not the only possible suspect in the case, and that Samuel himself may have been responsible for the Sept. 2000 fire.

After the conviction, Welton's attorneys requested an acquittal, basing the request on their belief that the jury had been given insufficient evidence for the conviction.

She was sentenced in October to 99 years in prison.

"I looked for a smoking gun from day one and never found one," the judge said at Welton's sentencing. "But I could not sit as a 13th juror and re-decide the case," he said in regards to the acquittal request.

Eighteen-year-old Andrew Lee Coffman was charged with shooting a 75-year-old woman, shattering her jaw, in February. He apparently fled but was picked up at the Canadian border and was charged with attempted murder, assault and burglary. He was released on bail, but then was indicted and arrested again in September, charged with stalking and violating conditions of his release.

Also charged with murder and assault, John Knauss, 41, was indicted in February for driving drunk and causing the death of a four-year-old boy the previous November. At the time of the crash Knauss was supposed to be in a halfway house serving a sentence for a previous DWI conviction -- for another car crash that resulted in serious injury. In November, Knauss was sentenced to 25 years in prison and his eligibility for a driver's license was revoked for life.

Alaska State Troopers arrested William Horsey III, 52, of Palmer for the murder of Jane Sasseen, 65, in April. She died from a gunshot wound.

Seventeen-year-old Ricky Shivers was charged as an adult in late March for first-degree assault following the beating and stabbing of another teen-ager. A December jury found Shivers guilty of first- and second-degree assault. He entered a plea during the trial dropping another charge from first- to second-degree assault. He is set for sentencing in February.

In April, 22-year-old Michael Peterson Jr. was shot in the parking lot of a Houston fireworks stand. Although trooper reports indicated Paul McGee, 47, may have shot Peterson during a dispute, no charges have been filed.

Lorayne Johnson, 43, of Wasilla, was charged with attempted murder, assault and DWI in November following an apparent altercation at the home of the victim. She was charged with running over a man in a garage with a Bronco.

Civil court

In July, the Alaska Supreme Court ruled that Kim Cook was liable for civil damages in the 1999 shooting death of Palmer Police Officer Jim Rowland Jr., overturning an earlier Palmer Superior Court judgment for a total of $7 million to be awarded to Rowland's widow. The Supreme Court sent the case back into hearings to determine the damages and granted Cook a new judge to hear the case. Cook had been sentenced in January 2001 to 99 years in prison for the shooting.

Tragedy

Several Mat-Su residents lost their lives in 2002.

In January, J.W. King, 71, died after his vehicle rolled in icy conditions on the Glenn Highway.

Donna Graham, 61, died at the scene of a January accident near Cottonwood Creek Mall after losing control of her car.

In March, Wasilla's Brian Hutchins, 45, died following a snowmachine accident.

Wasilla pilot and hunting guide David Neel, 58, died in February when his plane crashed 80 miles west of Bethel.

In April, Lorraine Foster, 71, of Wasilla, died after being severely injured while using an axle-driven log splitter.

In March, Donald Mikkelson, 56, of Big Lake, died as the result of a house fire. By then firefighters had responded to seven Valley fires within a two-week period -- some believed to have been arson.

Twenty-year-old Chuck Lincoln, former Wasilla football fullback, died from alcohol consumption, according to troopers.

Four-year-old Andy Lefferson was killed after being hit by a truck on Peck Street in Wasilla.

Thirteen-year-old Kimberly Olson was shot and killed in mid August when her 17-year-old brother was cleaning a gun in the family's cabin in the Petersville area. She was in the loft above her brother when the gun discharged.

A week later six-year-old Jarrod Walling was shot while his step-father was preparing to clean a rifle. Trooper reports said Marvin Clayton did not realize the rifle had a live round in it, the child reached for it, and it went off hitting the boy in the chest. The boy died at Valley Hospital.

James Hesterberg, 48, a Department of Corrections officer, died when the van he was driving collided with a semi-truck on the Seward Highway in November. He and his partner were taking seven inmates to Seward. Four of the inmates, all from Anchorage, also died in the crash.

Twenty-one-year-old Arthur Leuken III, of Wasilla, died Dec. 19 in a single-vehicle car crash on Fairview Loop.

On Dec. 23, three Valley residents were killed in a three-car crash on the Parks Highway near Big lake. Michael Mikkelsen, 57, of Houston, and Frederick and Alvera Alley, 54 and 51, of Willow, died in a three-car collision.

Young drivers

Valley teens were injured in several serious car crashes in 2002.

In July, 17-year-old Andrew Sandvik of Palmer ended up in serious condition in at Providence Hospital following a car wreck on Palmer Fishhook Road.

A week later, 18-year-old Christina Simmons was medivaced to Providence after a three-vehicle crash near Mile 46 Parks Highway.

In August, a crash involving an automobile and an ATV on Pittman Road resulted in four people hospitalized. Evett Henry, 19, of Anchorage and Tom Tocktoo, 30, of Koyuk, on the four-wheeler, were injured, as were the car's driver, Heather Simas, 29, of Wasilla, and her passenger, Shawn Himes, 33.

A head-on collision in early November on Point MacKenzie Road resulted in injuries to Valley residents 16-year-old Marrissa Breeden, her passenger, Brittany Richards, 15, and Kris Alexander, 31, of Anchorage.

Assault

In January, Micah J. Beshaw, 26, was charged with raping two women in Mat-Su in the fall. Both victims reported they were kidnapped, taken to another location and raped then released. According to police, substantial evidence linked Beshaw to the attacks. As of Jan. 1, he was being held at Palmer Correctional Facility. His trial is scheduled for Feb. 10.

In another case 36-year-old Darren Peter Adams was sentenced in January to 35 years in prison on the charge of first-degree assault for attacking a woman in her home. He had apparently been recently released from prison when the incident occurred.

In what appeared to be more of a neighborhood dispute than a court case, the Palmer courthouse filled with family, friends, and disgruntled employees in February for the trial of Thomas Hood, 44, of Meadow Lakes. Hood was charged with misdemeanor assault in 2001 for allegedly pushing a bus girl at his restaurant, Mile 49 CafŽ. Hood was found guilty and placed on probation for two years; the victim in the case asked that he receive no jail time, and, much to the disappointment of many community members, he also lost his volunteer job as Meadow Lakes fire chief.

Danny Wood, 36, charged with attempted murder, sexual assault and kidnapping of his wife in 2001, was brought to trial and convicted of lesser charges in February. He was acquitted of attempted murder and assault; the jury couldn't reach a decision on burglary and kidnapping and he was found guilty of fourth-degree assault, violating a domestic-violence restraining order and coercion. A plea agreement was made in which Wood pleaded no contest to the burglary charge and the kidnapping charge was dropped. He was sentenced in July to eight years in prison, with six suspended.

In August a suspect in a January home invasion pleaded no contest to fourth-degree assault. Jace A. Dunbar, 19, was one of seven young men believed to have attacked a Hatcher Pass family after asking to use the phone. Dunbar was sentenced in August to 360 days in jail, with 240 suspended. He will be on probation until 2005.

Four 17-year-olds, Brandon Wallace, Hanley Bannon, Russell Blakeman and Sarah MacCallum, were charged with second-degree assault in 2002 in connection with a Dec. 2001 beating of Brian Blubaugh of Sutton. Bannon, Blakeman and Wallace were later convicted of second-degree assault and sentenced to probation and community service.

Robbery

Mat-Su Cinema was the location of another crime, in July, when a bandit in a stocking hat and blue bandana covering his face held up the theater cashier, while movie-goers stood in line. Several witnesses chased the suspect who fled on a four-wheeler -- he was not caught.

In June, Knik Country Video was robbed by a heavy-set man 20 to 25 years old.

In August, a 16-year-old barista at Mocha Moose in Wasilla was robbed at gunpoint by a white man wearing an oversized hooded sweatshirt and a bandana on his face.

Two days later Williams Express at Mile 49 Parks Hwy. was robbed by a man wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt and a bandana over his face.

Arrests were made in an October robbery. After allegedly robbing the Tesoro To-Go Mart on Knik-Goose Bay Road Sept. 29, Jesse Rice, 19, was arrested and charged. The robber, store clerks said, had been wearing a hooded sweatshirt and masked with a bandana, brandishing a claw hammer. They were able to give a description of the get-away car. Rice was reportedly hiding in the trunk of the car, driven by Theodore Halan, 22, of Palmer. A 16-year-old girl was also in the car. Halan was also charged with robbery.

Hooded sweatshirts were also worn by two men who robbed a Wasilla man at his home at gunpoint in October. The men, reportedly in their early 20s, pushed their way into the man's home and threatened him with a handgun after knocking on the door. They took cash and prescription drugs.

Three days later, troopers were notified of another home robbery, this time in Palmer, where two men brandishing a gun took cash, prescription drugs and a gun, then left.

In November, a man in his late teens wearing a cream-colored hooded sweatshirt, sunglasses and masked with a red bandana entered Rippie World in Wasilla, pointed a gun at the clerk and robbed her of her till money.

James McAnulty, 24, was sentenced in November to 10 years in prison for his role in the January 2001 armed robbery of Hatcher Pass Gateway Store and a subsequent carjacking. Eighteen-year-old Shannon Stenhoff, also charged in the robbery, pled no contest to one charge of armed robbery and was sentenced in December to 3-1/2 years in prison. Stenhoff, 16 at the time of the offense, reportedly said he was forced by McAnulty into committing the crimes at part of an initiation into McAnulty's gang.

McAnulty's half-brother, Jason Geisler, 19, was also charged as an accomplice in the case. He entered a no contest plea to robbery in December, right before he was scheduled to go to trial.

Burglary

The Valley was plagued with burglaries this year.

The Willow post office was burglarized in January

Two schools were burglarized in March and several items were stolen.

In late March, two men were charged with burglarizing Valley schools on five occasions in March. Jeremy Hartman, 22, and Jerome Phelps, 18, were picked up and each charged with several counts in relation to the burglaries.

In April nearly $30,000 in cash -- money raised to help a member whose wife suffered a stroke -- was stolen when the American Legion Post in Palmer was broken into.

Wasilla's Carl Gage, 30, was charged with second-degree burglary, criminal mischief and theft for a May break-in at Big Lake Foodmart. The store owner posted photos from a surveillance camera and Gage was reportedly identified from them.

Norma Cochran, 47, was charged in August with burglary for a May break-in of a Fairview Loop home. The homeowner surprised the intruder who fled. The victim later saw the suspect attempting to get into a neighbor's home and reported it. According to court records, Cochran went to troopers and confessed she broke into the home to get prescription drugs.

In October vandals trashed an espresso stand, a Volkswagen and a truck, in the same area in Willow. The suspects also took a shotgun and a rifle from the truck.

Oct. 5 in Wasilla suspects ransacked the cars of five Grizzly Bear Drive residents, stealing a CD player, camera equipment and attempting to remove a car stereo. None of the cars were locked, troopers said.

October marked the beginning of what a string of Valley burglaries at auto shops, businesses and construction sites. Suspects stole tens of thousands of dollars worth of tools and equipment between October and December.

A Meadow Lakes homeowner surprised an apparent would-be burglar in November, narrowly missing being shot. A man with red hair and a beard entered his racing trailer and was attempting to steal things when he confronted him. A scuffle followed and the suspect pulled a hand gun and fired a shot, hitting the side of the trailer, before fleeing.

The Alaska State Fair grounds were also hit in November by vandals who busted up motor homes, windows and ATM machines, among other things. Police said three teen-age boys -- ages 13, 14 and 17 -- were responsible for the crimes and forwarded charges to the Division of Juvenile Justice.

Theft, fraud

In February a former Palmer Division of Motor Vehicle clerk, Darcy Riley, 29, was sentenced to six months for pilfering more than $11,000 in license reinstatement fees. Riley was permitted to serve her time under the Department of Correction's new House Arrest Program, using an ankle bracelet to monitor her movements.

In another case, former Palmer Correctional Center guard Jeffrey Wiseman, 46, pled no contest to two counts of second-degree theft and one count of fraudulent use of a credit card -- a reduction from 25 original counts -- for using inmate's credit cards. Wiseman was sentenced to 180 hours of community service and ordered to repay three inmates; mental illness may have been a factor in the case.

In July, Sherrie Fragnoli, 48, was charged with falsifying business records, and several counts of second- and third-degree theft for allegedly embezzling money from her place of business, One-Stop Travel. She reportedly said her husband had terminal cancer, that she took the money to keep from losing her home, and she attempted to pay back a portion of the money.

Marvin D. Donley, 41, alleged check and credit card thief, was charged in October, within two hours of a reported purse snatching, while attempting to purchase a computer at Fred Meyer in Wasilla with a stolen check.

Choosing to make his own money, Arthur Williams Sr., 59, of Chickaloon, pled guilty to counterfeiting and was sentenced in March to five years in federal prison. Also sentenced were his son Arthur Williams Jr., to three years in prison, and his wife, Natalie Williams, to five years of probation and six months of home detention. A search warrant revealed a scanner, printer, computer and paper at the Williams' home. Anice Williams was later convicted of transferring the counterfeit money. James and Vicki Shanigan of Wasilla were also convicted in the scheme. Federal investigators said $7,350 in phony bills was passed off at stores in Anchorage, Wasilla and Palmer.

Alcohol

Alcohol was a common denominator in a large number of crimes in 2002.

Forty-year-old Margaret Kelley pled no contest to leaving the scene of an accident and reckless driving related to a Sept. 2001 incident on the Parks Highway when she drove head-on toward another car, forcing the driver off the road, hitting their trailer and leaving the scene. Kelley was sentenced to two years in jail, rehab and 10 years' probation.

Wasilla man Donald Benedix, 38, pled no contest and was convicted to 27 months' jail time for assault, theft, DWI and driving without a license -- bringing his conviction tally to more than 30 convictions since 1989, many of them alcohol-related. He was also required to undergo substance-abuse treatment.

Hours before the state's new drunken-driving law was enacted, on July 3, Robert Noden, 53, was arrested and charged with DWI following a collision on the Palmer-Wasilla Highway. Noden, arrested six times previous for DWI, received a two-year jail sentence, with one suspended. The judge allowed him to finish rehabilitation treatment and ordered him to serve 13 months in prison.

A six-member jury in March convicted a 16-year-old of minor consuming alcohol, believed to be the first such trial in the state after passage of a new minor consuming law. The new MCA statutes made minor consuming a criminal case. Magistrate David Zwink, delivering a lecture to the youth, said, "In my 11 years on the bench I've seen so many lives screwed up because of alcohol. Alcohol is paying my mortgage, and it's paying the salary of your lawyer and the cops and the people prosecuting you. The wholesale liquor industry doesn't care about you. They just want to make a profit." He gave the youth a one year suspended imposition of sentence and directed him to alcohol screening and education.

Increasing caseload

The burgeoning Valley population continued to have a huge impact on the court system. In March the Alaska Court System reported Palmer Superior court had seen a 12-percent increase in caseloads in the previous year, while district court cases increased by 21 percent. The court asked the Legislature for funding for a new district judgeship and two clerk positions to ease the burden. Each Valley judge handled almost 4,000 cases, the court reported, compared to about 2,000 cases heard by Anchorage judges during the same time period. Prosecutors and public defenders also felt the crunch. Most of the criminal cases, most agreed, were drug or alcohol related.

Drugs

Mat-Su Drug Team asked for the public's help in 2002 to crack down on drug use in the Valley. Citing an alarming increase in methamphetamine production and use, enforcement officials said use could be reaching epidemic proportions.

A Wasilla couple, Max Foltz, 40, and Billie Welsh, 35, was found guilty in February after week-long jury trial for a 2000 marijuana bust of 183 plants. Welsh was convicted of six counts of fourth-degree MICS and will be on probation until August 2006.

Wasilla resident David Kaznakoff Jr. was found guilty by a 12-member jury at U.S. District Court in August for operating a meth lab in his home and possessing unregistered guns. Because it appeared Kaznakoff possessed a large amount of products for making meth in his trailer when it was raided, the case was moved from Palmer Superior Court to federal court. His attorney said he was simply a drug user, not a meth lab operator.

A Big Lake couple appeared to have been involved in illegal drug activity when they were arrested in September for firing weapons in their rented cabin in the middle of the night. Troopers arrived at the home of Jason Dewall, 29, and Rebecca Odell, 44, to a hail of gunfire and had to take cover and convince the couple they were really troopers, before taking the two into custody. Investigators found a variety of materials used for making meth, hallucinogenic mushrooms and two guns in the home, according to court records. Dewall pled no contest to a consolidated charge of assault and misconduct involving a controlled substance. Odell, also charged, has not entered a plea.

Civil rights

In a misdemeanor case that became high-profile, a Wasilla woman and a Palmer man arrested for disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and assault charged that the trooper arresting them overstepped his bounds. Tammy Barile, 35, filed a motion in court that trooper Eric Spitzer caused her several injuries during the February arrest. A jury trial determined Barile and her co-defendant, Milton Peery, were guilty. The Federal Bureau of Investigations completed an investigation of Spitzer's actions that "documents the allegations but does not reach any conclusions," FBI spokesman Eric Gonzalez said, and the case was classified as a civil rights issue. No action against Spitzer was taken by the Department of Justice or the U.S. District Attorney. Barile was sentenced in November to 60 days in jail; Peery got 30 days and a requirement to participate in alcohol treatment.