From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage --

Two Togiak men face a series of charges -- from shooting federally protected walrus in a state santuary to wasting game to drunken driving -- after witnesses caught them on film earlier this month, troopers say.

Here's the trooper report issued this afternoon:

On 5/9/11 at approximately 5 p.m., King Salmon Alaska Wildlife Troopers was notified that state Fish and Game researchers stationed on Round Island within the Walrus Islands State Game Sanctuary in Togiak Bay had observed two men in a skiff approach federally protected Pacific Walrus on the shore of Round Island, within the game sanctuary and begin firing upon a group of walrus at close range, killing one and seriously wounding at least 3 others.

The men then proceeded to remove only the ivory tusks of the dead animal before departing the area in the direction of Togiak Village. AWT and US Fish and Wildlife Service Officer's from King Salmon responded via aircraft to investigate.

2 P.M. UPDATE: Casey Grove reports from the Anchorage courthouse where Kenneth Dion is on trial for the 1994 murder of Bonnie Craig:

Assistant Attorney General Paul Miovas, a cold case prosecutor, laid out the state's case against Dion and went over details of Craig's last days alive.

Miovas described Craig as a hard-working college freshman. She spent late nights studying and held down a 30-hour-a-week job at Sam's Club, Miovas told the jurors.

Meanwhile, a picture of Craig taken days before the killing was projected on a screen in the courtroom. She wore a floral-print dress with brown hair past her shoulders. She flashed a smile.

Craig had a routine, Miovas told the jury. She usually walked to a bus stop and rode a public bus to UAA. A man driving by will testify he saw her walking to the bus stop sometime after 5 a.m. on the day she died, Miovas said.

She never got on the bus.

"Unfortunately, that's the last time anybody saw Bonnie alive and saw where she was going or what she was doing," Miovas said.

A woman at McHugh Creek spotted her body in water about 2:15 p.m.

There were about a dozen cuts on Craig’s head, including one at the base of her skull bad enough to kill her, Miovas said. An autopsy report said she couldn't have suffered the injuries from just a fall down the cliff, the prosecutor said.

Investigators also found Craig’s blood up above the creek, Miovas said.

"There's a leaf above the cliff with Bonnie's blood on it, one drop,” he said.

Semen was found in Craig’s body.

After hundreds of interviews, the investigation stalled, Miovas said. There was no connection to Dion at all back then, the prosecutor said.

But more than a decade later, in 2006, police in New Hampshire said they had a DNA sample from Dion. He was living back in his home state after two failed marriages and a short Army career in Alaska -- and the sample matched the semen found inside Craig's body.

Dion, who had been in Anchorage around the time of Craig's murder, told Alaska investigators he'd never seen Craig before. The DNA evidence told a different story: Dion's sample matches the sperm to a near mathematical certainty of 1 in 27 quadrillion.

ORIGINAL POST:

Karen Foster visits McHugh Creek, the site of her daughter Bonnie Craig's slaying in 1995. "I hate this place", Foster said at the time. The cold-case broke open in 2007 with the arrest of Kenneth Dion, whose trial is being held this week in Anchorage. (Jim Lavrakas / Anchorage Daily News)

NOTE: Catch up on the long-unsolved mystery of Bonnie Craig's death with this adn.com special section.

From Casey Grove in Anchorage --

Hints of a defense theory surfaced today for a man on trial for the long-unsolved, high-profile death of teenager Bonnie Craig.

Defense attorney Andrew Lambert, a lawyer for Kenneth Dion, is expected to say in his opening statement that Dion did not rape and kill Bonnie Craig, an 18-year-old college student found dead in or near McHugh Creek at the bottom of a cliff in 1994.

During the end of jury selection, Lambert asked potential jurors, one by one, if they believed a person could suffer fatal wounds from a fall down a cliff. Lambert also asked the jurors if they thought a person could have injuries during consensual sex, foreplay or masturbation.

Lambert suggested Craig might not have been murdered, as police have said for years.

"If you've heard the media say for 17 years this is a murder-rape, how does that affect your thinking?" Lambert asked one juror.

A state cold case prosecutor is expected to present DNA evidence linking Dion, 41, to Craig's killing.

Opening statements are expected to begin as early as today before a jury of 11 men and four women, including alternates.

Kenneth Dion

Richard Taylor. Photo courtesy of the Anchorage Police Department

From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage --

Anchorage police today arrested Richard Taylor, who police say served as the deacon of a local church, on multiple charges of sexual abuse of a minor.

Police believe Richard Taylor, 61, may have victimized additional children. They're asking for anyone with information to call Detective Chris Thomas at 786-2628.

Dawn Lynn Reynolds

From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage --

This just came across from the Anchorage Police Department. An Anchorage elementary school worker is accused of stealing $2,700 in student lunch money. Police don't know where she is and are asking for your help to find her:

Subject: Woman Sought for ASD Embezzlement

Anchorage Police have charged a woman with fraud in connection with a theft from a local elementary school.

From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage --

This today from the Anchorage Police Department, who say 46-year-old Michael Brent Looney was driving dangerously through Midtown Wednesday under the influence of hallucinogenic drugs.

Looney was seen driving the wrong way on one-way streets, driving over curbs and through yards and nearly striking pedestrians, police said.

He thought every vehicle he saw on the road was an undercover police car and was trying to get away from them, police said.

Seventeen-year-old Desirae Douglas was killed when she was caught in the crossfire during an East Anchorage gang-related gunfight Sept. 20, 2009, while attending a party with friends. BILL ROTH / Anchorage Daily News

From Casey Grove and Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage --

The Anchorage District Attorney’s Office today announced a slew of indictments in two Anchorage killings, including the high-profile, unsolved murder of a 17-year-old girl caught in a gun battle two years ago.

Here's a quick summary of the overlapping cases:

Desirae Douglas shooting (Sept. 9, 2009)
Five Anchorage men face murder charges for the 2009 shooting of 17-year-old Desirae Douglas, an innocent bystander at an East Anchorage party that erupted into a gunfight between so-called gang members.

The case frustrated the public -- how could someone get away with shooting a teenage girl in front of a crowd of people? -- and police, who initially said witnesses refused to talk.

Those now indicted for Douglas’s Sept. 9, 2009 murder are:

- Shearn Joshua, 21, arrested in the days after the party for a felony drug charge.
- Paul Baldwin, 20, jailed on recent felony drug charges.
- Eon Owens, 20, also jailed for recent felony drug charges.
- Parrish Harris, 19, a suspect in another fatal shooting.
- Julio Batista, 25, who told the Daily News in 2009 he was Douglas's boyfriend.

Julio Batista, left, is seen with Desirae Douglas's father Earl Douglas, mother Nara Carney-Brown and step-father Kenneth Brown in December 2009. Batista, who is now charged with second-degree murder in Douglas's death, was described as her "best friend/boyfriend" in her obituary. (BILL ROTH / Anchorage Daily News)

A sixth man wanted for aiding the suspected killers is still on the loose.

Dwaylon Kenzell Woodruff, 21, is wanted for charges that he tampered with evidence by disposing of spent shell casings from guns fired at the party.

Douglas's family first heard her accused killer's names on Wednesday.

"We were thrilled to hear the news. We've been waiting a long time," said grandma Clara Douglas. Clara spoke briefly outside an Anchorage courtroom about 1:30 p.m. She wore a red shirt with Desirae's picture.

"I can still hear those three shots," said aunt Jeanetta Douglas, who said she lives down the street from where her niece died.

Douglas's family cried later inside the courtroom, where six of the men -- brought in wearing orange jumpsuits and handcuffed together in two groups of three -- all pleaded not guilty

Yet another man accused in the killing died this March. He was shot in Mountain View by one of the men blamed for Douglas’s death, according to prosecutors:

Devante Jordan. Photo courtesy of the Anchorage Police Department.

Devante Jordan shooting (March 24, 2011)
Police believe Jordan, 19, was one of the shooters in the gunfight that killed Desirae Douglas.

Jordan died in a March 24 shooting. Three people have been indicted in that killing:

-- Parrish Harris, who is also indicted in the Desirae Douglas case.
-- 21-year-old Marquinn Jones-Nelson, who is accused of shooting Jordan.
-- Dorian Topps, 17, an accused accomplice in the Jordan shooting.

Together, the three face additional charges for evidence tampering, because they tried to hide the gun used to kill Jordan, according to the District Attorney’s Office.

Several men from the two murder cases will be arraigned in state Superior Court today, Bachman said.

This is a developing story. Check back later for details.

From Rosemary Shinohara in Anchorage --

Police this afternoon were still trying to identify a man who died after being shot Sunday night by an Anchorage police officer.

Police Chief Mark Mew said the man did not carry any identification, and police had not firmly established who he was by mid-day.

The encounter began about 10:30 p.m. when someone called police to the Fred Meyer gas station at Northern Lights Boulevard and the Seward Highway, spokeswoman Marlene Lammers said.

From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage --

Anchorage police are investigating a shooting reported 4:07 p.m. at Davis Park in Mountain View, a police dispatch supervisor said.

One man shot another in the abdomen, according to early reports, the supervisor said. The injuries do not appear to be life-threatening, she said.

A possible suspect has been identified but no one was in custody as of 6:45 p.m., police said.

This is a developing story. Check back later for updates.

From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage --

Authorities evacuated about 50 homes Friday night in the Trapper Creek area after the discovery of roughly 550 pounds of unstable explosives in an abandoned station wagon, troopers say.

An explosives team from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson destroyed the cache at 2 a.m. No one was injured, troopers say.

The explosives had been in the car since the mid-1990s when a man who owns the property moved them there from a nearby railroad box car, said troopers spokeswoman Beth Ipsen.

The property owner has been living in the box car, Ipsen said.

From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage --

Firefighters found the body of an unidentified man at the scene of a house fire Thursday night in Wasilla, troopers say.

The blaze was reported at 10:24 p.m. in the Williwaw subdivision off of Bogard Road. Mat-Su Borough firefighters discovered the body inside the home.

Troopers were not immediately able to identify the dead man, whose body was transported to Anchorage for an autopsy. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

No foul play is suspected, troopers said.

Two bailiffs struggle to restrain Jason Coday after he lunged violently at his lawyer when he was found guilty of murder in Juneau Superior Court on May 15, 2007. Suzy Lafferty / Juneau Empire.

From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage --

When a homeless man shot and killed Simone Young Kim in 2006 for no apparent reason outside the Juneau Fred Meyer, he used a .22 rifle obtained from a local gun store.

I say “obtained” because the owner of the store, Ray Coxe, has said that the shooter, Jason Coday, came into the store, chose the rifle and illegally left without completing the paperwork to buy it. He left $200 behind on the counter.

The Juneau Empire once described Coday as a drifter with a criminal record. He's now 33 years old, serving a 101-year sentence at Spring Creek Correctional Center.

To one anti-gun-violence group in Washington, D.C., however, the case is far from settled.

The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence sued the gun store owner in 2008 on behalf of Kim’s family, accusing Rayco Sales of Juneau of negligently providing Coday with the weapon. A Superior Court judge ruled in October that the federal Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act gives immunity to the gun dealer, according to the Brady Center.

The group filed a brief with the Alaska Supreme Court today asking the court to reverse the lower court’s decision to dismiss the case.

“Congress did not give reckless gun dealers immunity from the long-established rules that govern everyone else in society,” Brady Center’s Paul Helmke said. “Even if Congress wanted to deprive gun-violence victims of their civil rights to seek justice in the courts, the Constitution does not allow it.”

Meantime, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence -- a sister organization of the Brady Center -- is blasting Alaska’s gun laws. The group says the state is in a three-way tie for the weakest gun-control laws in the nation.

The Brady Campaign this week praised California’s more restrictive gun laws, such as its universal background check system and ban on assault clips. It dismissed Alaska, Utah and Arizona as “do-nothing states” when it comes to restricting access to firearms.

Coday killed Kim on Aug. 4, 2006, in what was Juneau’s first murder in years.

Prosecutors said Coday walked up to Kim, a painting contractor, and began firing, according to news reports at the time. The motive was unclear.

Note: I couldn’t reach the gun store owner today by phone. Nor could I reach the regional field rep for the NRA, a group whose view on Alaska gun laws differs – you can be sure – from the Brady Center.

Jason Coday surveys the Juneau Superior courtroom as he waits for the jury to decide the verdict in the murder trial of Simone Kim Tuesday, 5/15/2007. Suzy Lafferty / Juneau Empire.

From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage --

Two Anchorage-area men were sentenced to prison this week for possessing child pornography.

Here's a quick rundown on the two separate cases:

Vincent L. Evans, Fort Richardson
Vincent Lee Evans, 30, of Fort Richardson was sentenced Wednesday in federal court to six years in prison, according to the U.S. Attorney's office.

From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage --

Three people have been charged in a scheme to illegally buy polar bear hides and hundreds of pounds of walrus tusks from the St. Lawrence Island village of Savoonga and market them online.

A federal grand jury has indicted: Jesse Joseph Leboeuf (a.k.a. Wayne Gerrard Christian), 47, Loretta Audrey Sternbach, 52, both of Glennallen, and Richard Blake Weshenfelder, 50.

All are from Glennallen, according to the indictment. The trio was scheduled to appear in federal court today in Anchorage.

Police offered few new details today 24 hours after a man was shot multiple times, including at least once in the face, while driving a car near Valley of the Moon Park.

No one has been arrested and no suspects have been identified in the shooting, police said this afternoon.

Here's what we do know:

- The victim, 35-year-old Carlton Donnelly, is still alive and is expected to survive.

- Detectives had hoped to talk to Donnelly today, but they were unable to this afternoon, said police spokeswoman Marlene Lammers. It's unclear what his condition is, Lammers said.

From the recent trooper logs:

Location: Wasilla
Case number: 11-36675
Type: Reckless Driving
Text: On 04-24-11, at 1903 hours, Troopers with the Bureau of Highway Patrol, South Central Team along with Alaska Wildlife Troopers and Wasilla Police responded to the area of Church Road for a REDDI Report (Report Every Dangerous Driver Immediately).

JUNEAU (AP) — Juneau police say a 14-year-old girl was approached by a man in what could be a sex scam.

Police say they received a report that the man approached the girl and offered her $100 to pose for sexually suggestive photographs. The man claimed to be from a modeling agency.

Police describe the man as older, heavyset and bald. They say he was driving a small, light green truck with a white canopy.

The girl told police she had met the man earlier this year, but could not remember his name. The girl's mother reported the incident to police Tuesday night.

Alaska State Troopers say an officer who shot and wounded a man during an armed confrontation in Tanacross in June was justified in his actions.

Trooper James “Mike” Wilcox, of Delta Junction, shot 24-year-old Shane McDonald after four officers responded to a Tanacross home the night of June 23 to check reports that he had choked a relative and held a gun on another person.

According to troopers, McDonald barricaded himself in his home. While troopers waited for backup to arrive, he came out with a gun and a knife and was shot.

A 16-year-old girl was shot in the butt in an apparently accidental shooting in Kodiak, according to Alaska State Troopers.

Troopers say the girl, who was not named, arrived at Providence Kodiak Island Medical Center on Sunday evening several hours after sustaining a “non-life threatening injury to the buttock.”

The girl had been shot at a cabin in Chiniak several hours before arriving at the hospital, troopers said. It appeared that someone had been manipulating a weapon trying to clear it when it discharged and struck her, troopers said.

Thieves have racked up more than $3,600 in fraudulent gas purchases on an Anchorage School District-owned fuel card since late June, according to police.

Police say the Fleet One Fuel Card has been used by thieves driving three different vehicles — including a 1970s-era motor home — more than 45 times between June 28 and Aug. 1. They have mostly used the card in Anchorage-area Holiday gas stations, police said.

An Anchorage man has been sentenced to 30 months in prison and ordered to pay $1,250 in restitution for robbing a credit union, according to the U.S. attorney.

Jeremy Victor Uldrich, 25, previously pleaded guilty to one count of bank robbery.

Prosecutors say Uldrich walked into a Credit Union 1 branch on Jan. 23 and handed a teller a note threatening that he had a weapon and demanding cash.

Uldrich was put on supervised release for three years after prison.

— Anchorage Daily News