Woman slain after confrontation

BUTTE — A Palmer man shot in the head a woman he claimed was armed with a knife about 10 p.m. Sunday, then called 911 to report it, authorities said.

“I’m so (expletive)ed, I’m beyond help,” a man reportedly told the 911 dispatcher.

The victim, Leticia Faller, 28, of Palmer, died of her injuries in an Alaska Regional Medical Center about 2 a.m., according to an Alaska State Troopers media release.

Troopers responding to a separate 911 call discovered Faller’s body lying on the ground outside The Green Store, a convenience store near the intersection of Old Glenn Highway and Plumley Road, according to a sworn affidavit written by troopers investigator Andrew Adams.

Troopers arrested Benjamin “Ben” Wilson, 31, of Palmer about 11 a.m. Monday morning and charged him with first-degree murder, second-degree murder and third-degree assault, then transported him to the Mat-Su Pretrial Facility where he was being held Monday morning pending a likely Tuesday morning arraignment, according to Alaska State Troopers and court records.

When stopped by troopers returning to the scene of the crime, Wilson was distraught.

“Why did I shoot her! Why?” the affidavit reads. “She had a knife. I could have taken it from her. Why did I shoot her?”

Wilson told troopers he and another man had been at Faller’s house earlier in the evening, and left when her father told them to leave, according to the affidavit. Faller met the pair at the store, and the other man left the truck, at which point Faller got into the passenger side of the truck with a knife, screaming expletives at Wilson, at which point Wilson said he shot her, then got out of the car to check on her, according to the affidavit.

The other man testified Wilson had pointed a handgun at him, the affidavit says.

The victim’s sister provided troopers with pictures of a text conversation between a contact identified as “Big Ben” and Faller.

Some of the texts mentioned in the affidavit hint at potential threats.

“I can’t help your family if you don’t talk to me,” one of Big Ben’s texts read, according to the affidavit. “You have nothing to fear from me. But I don’t know how long I can make you ‘OK’ with my people. And my people want me to go back to work.”

Others are more explicit.

“I (sic) in a world of (expletive),” Big Ben wrote at one point. “And I’m told to bring it to the Butte. You put me here and I want out!”

The affidavit also mentions but does not repeat, a text “which threatens the life of both Leticia and her 7-year-old daughter.”

The sister also provided a letter dated Sunday giving her medical and school rights “in the event something has happened to me!” the affidavit reads in part.

Wilson, then 19 years old, faced an attempted second-degree murder charge in 2003, which was ultimately dismissed by the prosecution, Alaska court records show. According to a Frontiersman article dated about that time, Wilson struck both a man pushing a Yamaha motorcycle and then a Honda Rancher four-wheeler. The driver of the rancher was thrown about 20 feet.

Wilson told police he drove near the vehicles in an attempt to scare them after the recreational vehicles’ tires threw rocks at his windshield, according to the article. After the collision, Wilson and the other two men got into a fistfight, according to the article.

Wilson eventually pleaded no contest to two counts of third degree assault, court records show.

Wilson also faced multiple fourth-degree drug misconduct charges in 2009, eventually pleading guilty to a single count of possession with intent to deliver.

Wilson and Faller were friends on Facebook. Wilson’s page includes an assortment of re-posted anti-police and pro-Second Amendment material, including an advertisement for a tee shirt that reads “I’d rather have a gun in my hand than 911 on the phone.”

Faller’s timeline contains mostly changes to her profile picture.

A search for Faller’s name turned up an array of mostly minor offenses and civil cases in Alaska court records.

Contact Brian O’Connor at 352-2269 or brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com