The jury has been seated and opening statements have been heard in the trial of the October 2012 shooting death of 27-year-old Said Beshirov. Korakanh Phornsovanh is the man accused of gunning down Beshirov outside of the now-closed Platinum Jaxx nightclub.

On Wednesday, jurors watched cell phone video that was shot by a witness the night of the murder. In the video, crowds are gathered and two fights are happening simultaneously in different locations. Witnesses said a group of men began pushing two women and, as people tried to intervene, they became angry.

Prosecutors say Phornsavanh — who can be seen wearing a red hoodie and face paint – was involved in the altercations from the beginning. Phornsovanh is seen in the video seconds before the shots are fired, but the witness pans away and the shooting is not caught on camera.

“The man who killed Said Beshirov is Korakanh Phornsovanh,” said Assistant District Attorney Jenna Gruenstein.

Gruenstein told jurors Beshirov approached Phornsovanh with his hands up and both palms facing out. She said it was a sign of peace. Prosecutors say Beshirov was just trying to stop the fight and protect a friend. Gruenstein said video shows Phornsovanh taking a swing at Beshirov, but Beshirov blocked him and punched him in the face, knocking him off balance.

Defesne attorney Daniel Lowery said his client did not fire the gun and says the fatal shots were fired by a man named Anthony Xayavongsy. Lowery says during the course of the trial, several witnesses will testify that the shooter was wearing a long-sleeved white shirt and a black vest or jacket. In the video, Xayavongsy is dressed as a cowboy, and has on a button-down shirt and black vest.

“The evidence is going to be overwhelming on this, ladies and gentleman,” said Lowery. ”It’s not going to be a close call. I anticipate as this trial goes on, you’re going to be shaking your heads saying, ‘What is going on here? — This is ridiculous.”

Prosecutors say they will be calling in an expert witness to testify that in situations like these, witness statements are not always correct.

“There was a lot going on. A lot of people fighting. A lot of people in costumes. A lot was happening,” said Gruenstein. “People were getting knocked down. People were getting punched. It was chaotic.”

The defense says the prosecution’s case lacks evidence, adding that there is no murder weapon and no DNA linking Phornsavanh to the killing. Prosecutors say Phornsovanh and his friends were looking for a fight that night.

“They were looking for trouble. They were looking for a fight,” said Gruenstein. “And it didn’t much matter to them whether it was a fair fight.”

Both the defense and prosecution agree, however, Beshirov was killed in cold blood.

“There was no excuse for it. There was no justification for it,” said Lowery. “He was murdered.”

But Lowery says they’ve got the wrong guy. The trial is expected to last three to four weeks, and then it will be up to the jury to decide if Phornsavanh is innocent or guilty.

A 39-year-old man shot in an East Anchorage trailer park on May 11 has died, according to police. The shooting is now being investigated as a homicide.

The Anchorage Police Department was first notified at 7:04 p.m. on May 11 of a disturbance between multiple people in a trailer park on the 700 block of Muldoon Road, followed quickly by reports of shots fired in the area.

“Almost immediately after that, we got a report of a male victim who was struck by the gunfire,” said Sgt. Shaun Henry with APD.

The victim, later identified as David French, was transported to a nearby hospital on May 11 and died May 28 from his wounds, according to APD spokeswoman Renee Oistad.

Police found multiple bullet holes in at least two trailers and a vehicle. Two other vehicles were reportedly at the scene during the shooting and were impounded, but Oistad said no suspects have been identified.

Anyone with information on the shooting is asked to called APD Det. Scott Niwa at 786-8891 or CrimeStoppers at 561-STOP.

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Troopers say a road-rage incident that began just off the Parks Highway Saturday evening ended with two people being taken to the hospital.

Authorities were called to a crash near Mile 50.5 of the Parks Highway just after 6 p.m, according to an online Alaska State Troopers dispatch.

Investigators say 25-year-old Jeremiah Desilva, of Big Lake, got into a verbal altercation with the driver of a Ford Ranger. Desilva, driving a 1993 Dodge Dakota, then rammed the Ford several times on the Parks Highway.

“The Dakota eventually rammed into the quarter panel of the Ford Ranger, which caused the Ranger to yaw, enter into a broadside skid, and roll after leaving the roadway,” AST says.

Troopers say Desilva fled the scene but was quickly located and taken into custody. He was arrested for two counts of third-degree assault, among other charges. Troopers say drugs and alcohol played a factor in the collision.

Both occupants in the Ford were taken to the Mat-Su Regional Medical Center.

An Anchorage woman was sentenced Friday to two years in prison for a felony violation of the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the first prosecuted case of its kind in the state.

Stacy Laulu, 33, was convicted on Jan. 16 for two charges of  unauthorized disclosure of health information and sentenced to serve two 24-month prison terms concurrently.

While an employee of Providence Alaska Medical Center, Laulu illegally accessed the medical records of two patients being treated at the hospital. Both patients were victims of Stuart Seugasala, 40, who was convicted and sentenced for kidnapping one of the patients and sexually assaulting him with a curling iron, as well as shooting the other patient after becoming “upset” with them at an Anchorage Denny’s.

Laulu, in her capacity as a financial counselor, looked into each patient’s records as a favor to Seugasala to learn what each had told police and hospital staff about the origin of their injuries and how badly they were hurt. She then texted him the information, according to the District Attorney’s office.

Police stopped Seugasala in 2013, who had tried to erase the text messages from his phone prior to a search warrant. When confronted, however, Laulu admitted to Drug Enforcement Agency officers that she had sent him the information.

During the trial, evidence was presented that showed Laulu’s husband was a “close friend and former co-defendant with Seugasala in a federal drug case,” and that Seugasala had delivered drug proceeds to the couple “for Laulu and her husband’s benefit,” according to the DA.

Providence fired Laulu after being notified of the charges against her.

A German shipping company already on probation was sentenced in Anchorage federal court Wednesday to pay $750,000 for intentionally dumping more than 1,700 gallons of oily water off the coast of Alaska and then giving the U.S. Coast Guard in Dutch Harbor false records.

Herm. Dauelsberg GmbH & Co. KG will also see a new three-year probation term and was ordered to put a comprehensive environmental plan in place, according to a statement from the Alaska District Attorney’s office.

Herm. Dauelsberg is the operator of the Motor Vessel Lindavia, a cargo container ship that operates under the flag of the Republic of Liberia.

According to Kevin Feldis, first assistant U.S. attorney, 35,000 gallons of heavy fuel had leaked into the ship’s cargo hold after a bulkhead corroded and a hole developed in a fuel tank.

Then, from late January to Feb. 11, the M/V Lindavia traveled from South Korea to China before going through the U.S.’s Exclusive Economic Zone and arriving in Dutch Harbor the night of Feb. 11, the DA’s office said. The ship left South Korea and made its way to Alaska before the fuel was cleaned from the bilge area below the cargo hold, “ultimately resulting in the crew illegally and intentionally discharging a mix of sea water and heavy fuel oil that accumulated in that bilge area,” Feldis said.

As the operator for the 617-foot vessel, Herm. Dauelsberg was responsible for operating an oil water separator and maintaining an accurate oil record book.

On at least five different days during the trip to Alaska, Herm. Dauelsberg knowingly dumped at least 1,430 gallons of “oily water” overboard, the DA’s office said. Once about 100 miles from Dutch Harbor on Feb. 11, crew members discharged at least another 350 gallons of oily water into the Bering Sea — an area within U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone.

The German company, which was already on probation at the time, “knowingly failed” to record the oil discharges as required by the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships and “knowingly presented false and fictitious” oil records to the Coast Guard, the DA’s office said.

During the new probation period, the company will see a “heightened level of scrutiny, including warrantless searches of its vessels and places of business based upon a reasonable suspicion that it is violating the law,” according to the DA’s office.

In addition to $600,000 worth of criminal fines, Herm. Dauelsberg must also pay $150,000 in community restitution, which will go to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation for research, projects and education.

This is not the first of the company’s troubles with the law. On April 4, Herm. Dauelsberg pleaded guilty in California to failing to maintain an accurate oil record book and for failing to report a hazardous condition aboard a vessel.  Herm. Dauelsberg was sentenced to a three-year probation, a $1 million fine, a $250,000 community service payment and a $800 special assessment.

It also marks a second recent case regarding illegal oil dumping off the coast of Alaska.

“This is the second conviction and sentence in the last 10 days stemming from the intentional and illegal discharge of oil from cargo ships into waters off the coast of Alaska,” Feldis said in a statement. “There is no excuse for this conduct. Companies that seek to profit from transporting cargo across the world’s oceans have a responsibility to likewise invest in following the law.”

Contact Hope Miller at hmiller@ktva.com and @HopeMiller

National Geographic

Alaska State Troopers have arrested the man they say shot and killed 69-year-old James “Jimmy” Gojdics in early May.

Troopers arrested 44-year-old Major Workman at 12:30 p.m. Thursday. He has been charged with a single count of first-degree murder.

Gojdics, a former guest on National Geographic’s reality show “Ultimate Survival Alaska,” was found in his residence May 3 suffering from gunshot wounds. He was taken to Fairbanks Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Bail has not been set for Workman, who was taken to the Fairbanks Correctional Center.

This is a developing story, please check back for updates.

A former employee of the state’s Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory has been sentenced to spend two years in prison for stealing drug samples from work.

Stephen Clark Palmer, 54, was given a sentence of six years in prison with four suspended by Anchorage Superior Court Judge Michael Spaan. Palmer pleaded guilty in January to theft, tampering with physical evidence, misconduct involving a controlled substance and official misconduct.

The District Attorney’s office pushed for a harsher sentence because of Palmer’s position within the justice system, according to Chief Assistant Attorney General Robert Henderson with the Office of Special Prosecutions.

“The citizens of the State of Alaska placed an incredible responsibility on him. Palmer abused that responsibility and in doing so cost the state tens of thousands of dollars and called into question numerous criminal convictions,” Henderson wrote in the sentencing memorandum, urging Spaan to issue the maximum total sentence of 15 years.

Henderson says Palmer expressed remorse at the sentencing hearing, apologizing to friends and family, as well as the attending public. Palmer has also agreed to pay $38,428.94 in compensation to the lab to replace and re-test pure drug standards he partially replaced with inositol, a chemical commonly used to lower the purity, or “cut,” drugs.

New protocols have been put in place at the lab to prevent future cases of drug theft, according to the lab’s manager Orin Dym.

Behind three locked doors in the state’s crime lab are shelves filled with criminal drug evidence analyzed by Palmer. Palmer worked on about 2,000 cases during his 20 years at the lab. Of those, 120 have been sent back. Dym says they will now be kept under lock and key in case they need to be re-examined.

“My understanding is Mr. Palmer took from cases, he did not add to them,” Dym said. “I would say he was a very good, competent scientist, but he also had a drug addiction.”

Dym says he hopes the crime lab will quickly be able to regain the trust of Alaskans and prevent drug theft by a member of his team from ever happening again.

“The sentence the court today imposed brings to a close a chapter in this unfortunate story,” Dym said in a statement on the sentencing. “I want the people of the State of Alaska to know that I – as well as the balance of the senior management of the Department of Public Safety, and the staff of the crime laboratory- am committed to having our laboratory continue to be a model of quality forensics.”

A man has been arrested and charged with burglary after troopers caught him jumping out of a broken window at a Wasilla ice cream shop.

Early Saturday morning, Alaska State Troopers responded to Little Miller’s on Bogard Road for a report of an alarm. When troopers arrived at the scene, “a male suspect jumped out of a broken window,” according to an online AST dispatch.

Troopers chased the man, identified as 27-year-old Chad Kreftmeyer, who ran into the woods. A K-9 was brought to the scene to search the area. Eventually, Kreftmeyer was found hiding behind tires in the wooded area.

Investigation revealed that Kreftmeyer broke into the ice cream shop through the window, causing more than $750 in damage while “stealing keys from the business,” AST says.

Kreftmeyer was arrested for second-degree burglary, third-degree criminal mischief fourth-degree theft and possession of burglary tools. He was taken to Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility, troopers say.

Photo courtesy APD

Update: Tuesday, June 9

The woman police say was involved in Sunday’s shooting has turned herself in.

Denise Anntonette Estell, 33, turned herself in to the Anchorage Correctional Complex around 7:30 p.m. Monday, the Anchorage Police Department says.

Earlier story

Anchorage police are asking for the public’s help finding 33-year-old Denise Anntonette Estell in connection with Sunday’s shooting on a street in Fairview.

The shooting happened just before 4:30 p.m. on the 900 block of East 13th Avenue. The Anchorage Police Department says a 34-year-old woman was taken to the hospital.

“According to witnesses, the woman was arguing with another person in the street when a single gunshot was fired,” according to a release from APD.

The victim was shot once in the chest. She was treated at a local hospital and released a few hours later.

APD says when officers talked to the victim, she refused to tell them who her assailant was.

An arrest warrant has been issued for Estell on a felony assault charge. The 33-year-old is described as 5’4″ tall and weighs about 200 pounds. She has black hair and brown eyes, police say, adding that she fled the scene in a white Buick Rendezvous with an Alaska plate, GXY642.

Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Estell is encouraged to call APD at 786-8900 or Crime Stoppers at 561-STOP.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

One man was arrested while another remains at large after they allegedly stole from a man they were getting a ride from Thursday evening.

Sean Carpenter, 25, was arrested at a home in Homer and taken to the area jail Saturday, according to an online dispatch from Alaska State Troopers. The Homer man is being held without bail on charges of first-degree robbery, third-degree assault and second-degree theft. Troopers are still looking for 23-year-old Clarence Hock of Homer, who faces charges of first-degree robbery and second-degree theft.

Clarence Hock / Courtesy AST

According to the dispatch, a 21-year-old man was at an Anchor Point business when two males — later identified as Carpenter and Hock — asked the man for a ride to Kenai.

When the trio got to Ninilchik, a roughly hour-long drive from Kenai, the two suspects asked the 21-year-old Anchor Point man to stop at the Ninilchik beach, troopers wrote.

“After they stopped, the males assaulted and robbed the victim,” the dispatch says. According to AST spokesperson Megan Peters, an “undisclosed amount of cash was stolen from the victim.”

Carpenter and Hock fled with two friends who had followed the trio in a separate car, said troopers, who were not able to locate the suspects that night. It is unknown what, if any, charges the two friends may face, Peters said in an email.

Friday, the Homer Court issued an arrest warrant for Carpenter and Hock. Troopers ask anyone with information to contact them at 235-8239.

Contact Hope Miller at hmiller@ktva.com and @HopeMiller

A Fairbanks priest was sentenced to 10 years in prison after he was caught using a work computer to receive images of child pornography, authorities say.

Clint Michael Landry — who was employed as a priest with the Catholic Diocese in Fairbanks since 2011 – will be under a lifetime period of supervised release after serving his prison sentence, according to a statement from the Alaska District Attorney’s office.

Landry was caught using a work computer to receive child porn through his Yahoo email account in May 2014.

“A search of the computer found multiple sexually-explicit Instant Messages (IM) between the defendant and others believed to be located in the Philippines,” the statement says. “In many of these IMs, the defendant is negotiating with a Filipino coconspirator about viewing sexually explicit conduct involving minors through webcams and Skype communications.”

The talks with people in the Philippines took place from June 2013 to May 2014. Investigators found Landry communicated with at least eight different Yahoo accounts to see videos of minors engaged in “sexually explicit conduct,” the DA’s office said. In at least three instances, Landry sought children younger than 11 years old.

Robert Hannon, chancellor of the Catholic Diocese in Fairbanks, says they have filters on “many devices” but don’t routinely sweep computers “unless we have reason to believe something is wrong.”

“It was just pure accident that we happened to see an open chat session,” said Hannon, adding that he was “shocked” and “disturbed” by the findings.

Hannon, who has been with the Diocese for about nine years, says this is the first child porn incident he has encountered. The chancellor says there has not been any indication Landry targeted local children.

At Landry’s sentencing, Judge Ralph Beistline remarked that child exploitation and pornography victimizes children around the world. The U.S.’s laws are a “desperate attempt” to put an end to the child porn trade, he said.

Beistline also said he was troubled by the fact that Landry “had a position of respect in the community” and that he violated the parish’s trust.

The lifetime supervision includes Internet access restrictions, polygraph examinations, sex offender treatment and lifetime sex offender registration. The case was handled by the FBI.

–Elizabteh Raines contributed reporting. 

Contact Hope Miller at hmiller@ktva.com and @HopeMiller

After a “lengthy investigation” by Alaska State Troopers, two men were arrested Sunday for sexually abusing a child.

Olie Olrun III, 22, and Christopher Olrun, 23, both face charges of first-degree sexual abuse of a minor. The charges stem from an investigation alleging each engaged in sexual acts with a girl in 2011 who was then roughly 8 years old, identified in court documents as “C.J.”

The charges were handed down on Friday, and both men were arrested in Atmautluak, northwest of Bethel, on Sunday. They are being held at the Yukon Kuskokwim Correctional Center under bails of $100,000. 

The relationship of the two men was not immediately available.

This is a developing story, please check back for updates.

A federal employee union says hackers stole personnel data and Social Security numbers for every federal employee, charging that the cyberattack on federal employee data is far worse than the Obama administration has acknowledged.

Sen. Harry Reid, the Democratic leader, said on the Senate floor that the December hack into Office of Personnel Management data was carried out by “the Chinese.” Reid is one of eight lawmakers who is briefed on the most secret intelligence information.

J. David Cox, president of the American Federal of Government Employees, said in a letter to OPM director Katherine Archuleta that based on OPM’s internal briefings, the hackers stole military records and veterans’ status information, address, birth date, job and pay history, health insurance, life insurance, and pension information; age, gender, race data.

(Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

A 21-year-old man is accused of vandalizing a Kodiak church and its contents, including items considered holy.

Kodiak radio station KMXT reports Arkimedes Garcia was arrested as he left the Holy Resurrection Russian Orthodox Cathedral Wednesday evening.

Garcia is charged with burglary and criminal mischief. Online court records don’t show an attorney listed for him.

Archpriest Innocent Dresdow says many holy items were damaged. He says the items have been removed and are being re-blessed at an undisclosed location.

Dresdow says the intruder desecrated items behind the Nave. He says crosses were bent upward.

According to Dresdow, the intruder injured himself and bled in different places of the church, including the holy table.

Dresdow says services will go on as planned even though the church sustained physical damage.

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Information from: KMXT-FM, http://www.kmxt.org

(Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

Authorities served a search warrant to a house in Juneau on Friday where they seized 141 live, growing marijuana plants.

At about 4:30 p.m., officers from the Juneau Police Department and other agencies served the warrant at a residence located on the 10000 block of Dock Street, off Fritz Cove Road, according to a JPD release. There, they found the 100-plus marijuana plants, the smallest of which were seedlings and the largest of them stood about three feet high.

Also collected was enough dried marijuana to loosely fill a 55-gallon garbage bag, marijuana growing equipment, a handgun, a ballistic vest and cash, JPD says.

“The man had a multiple camera surveillance system that fed into a computer in the living room,” the release says.

Officers found the man who lives at the house where the warrant was served on a skiff nearby. Police say the man refused to come to land and speak with the officers.

“He yelled an obscenity at a JPD officer who tried to talk to him and took off in the skiff,” JPD says. “The Coast Guard sent out a patrol boat to check on the man.”

As of Friday evening, the man still had not been located.

Authorities are investigating this incident as fourth-degree misconduct involving a controlled substance, a Class C felony.

“The standard to commit that crime is that someone possesses more than 25 marijuana plants,” JPD says.

The ballot initiative to legalize weed in Alaska took effect on Feb. 24, allowing adults 21 years of age and older to possess up to one ounce of marijuana and grow up to six plants in a private location.

A teenager was charged with assault after stabbing his mother’s boyfriend in the Tikahtnu theater lobby late Thursday night, officials say.

The Anchorage Police Department took the 13-year-old boy into custody and charged him with second-degree assault, according to a statement from APD spokeswoman Jennifer Castro. He was taken to McLaughlin Youth Center.

The man — who suffered a single stab wound on his back from a knife — was hospitalized and is in stable condition.

The stabbing happened after the man and the teen’s mother got into a “verbal and physical” fight in the lobby, according to Castro.

“During the altercation, the female’s son, a 13-year-old male, approached the adult male and stabbed him the back,” Castro wrote. APD responded to the reported stabbing just before 11 p.m.

When asked if the man or woman are facing changes, Castro said the case is still under investigation.

A man suffered a non-life-threatening gunshot wound to his leg following a Fairbanks shooting Friday morning, according to the Fairbanks Police Department.

The incident happened around 2 a.m., police said. The victim contacted FPD and reported he was shot during a car chase that occurred after he and two passengers left Kodiak Jack’s Rodeo Bar. They were pursued by two other men who also came from the bar, police said. The two men drove a silver, 2015 Dodge Charger while the passenger hung outside the car and opened fire.

Shortly after the chase was reported, officers spotted a silver Dodge Charger driving north on the Steese Highway at around 80 mph. They found the car — a rental out of Anchorage — abandoned on Glacier Street moments later. The driver and passenger ran away, police said.

The two suspects were found within the hour, and a K9 unit located the gun in an alleyway off Farewell Avenue. The investigation is ongoing, police said, and no charges had been filed as of Friday morning. There’s no indication the shooting is related to a fatal shooting outside the Rock ‘N’ Rodeo Bar May 17, police said.

Willow homes evacuated and destroyed over the course of the Sockeye Fire have become targets for thieves, Alaska State Troopers say.

Thursday afternoon, AST’s Criminal Suppression Unit and Special Crimes Investigation Unit received a report of a copper wire theft from a property within the Sockeye Fire evacuation area, near mile 74 of the Parks Highway. A 30-year-old man from Talkeetna was identified as the suspect, troopers said, and investigation revealed he had also entered two other properties damaged by the fire, stealing copper wire and tubing, troopers said.

The thefts occurred between Wednesday and Thursday, and the stolen copper totaled $400-500. The man – who troopers have not yet identified publicly – faces charges of criminal trespassing and third-degree theft.

It wasn’t the first case of theft within the fire evacuation zone: Earlier this week, troopers had received another report of a burglary at a home off W. Sunnyslope Way. In that case, according to AST, the investigation is ongoing.

Updated 1:40 p.m.

ANCHORAGE – A Wasilla man accused of pouring gasoline on his family in an apparent attempt to set them on fire is facing several assault charges, authorities say.

Alaska State Troopers say 37-year-old Richard Hacker assaulted a family member who tried to stop him as he poured gasoline on family members at the Caribou Road home Friday evening.

Hacker ran away before troopers arrived at the home, but he was spotted “a short time later,” according to an online dispatch. According to court documents, AST found him sleeping inside his vehicle.

Hacker was taken to the Mat-Su Pretrial Facility and held without bail. He is charged with one count of second-degree assault, seven counts of third-degree assault and one count of fourth-degree assault.

In an interview with AST, Hacker said he had no intention of setting anyone on fire.

“I brought the gas in to scare them, sure. I wanted them out of my home,” he told AST, according to a sworn affidavit signed by trooper Daron Cooper.

In addition to allegedly dousing his family with gasoline, Hacker is also accused of trying hit family members with his Chevrolet Tahoe.

A Sitka company is paying $75,000 for improperly disposing fish waste in the Valdez harbor.

KCAW reports (http://bit.ly/1N0tBA5) a 2014 dive survey showed a Silver Bay Seafoods pipe was discharging waste at a depth of three feet, above the 60-foot requirement.

Department of Environmental Conservation compliance manager Mike Solter says waste released in shallow water can pile up and smother the sea floor.

Silver Bay CEO Rich Riggs said in statement that the company takes responsibility for the incident and has taken steps to prevent future occurrences, which Solter says helped lower the possible fine.

Solter said the company hired a full-time environmental staff member, and the Valdez plant is working to reduce waste, freeze it onsite, then haul it to a landfill or to be recycled.

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Information from: KCAW-FM, http://www.kcaw.org

(Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)