Bukurim Miftari has remained in a jail cell for more than two years, charged with the September 2012 murder of his ex-girlfriend, Kristen Reid.
Anchorage police found Reid’s naked body in a ditch along Fairbanks Street the morning of Sept. 18, 2012. She died from a gunshot wound to the head.
Prosecutors claim Miftari fired the bullet, but the defendant’s lawyers disagree.
“This young man is innocent,” says Miftari’s lead attorney, Rex Butler. “He wouldn’t do this to his girlfriend, just wouldn’t do it.”
The prosecution claims on that night in September, Reid took a visit to the Great Alaskan Bush Company, located on East International Airport Road near Fairbanks Street, with a girlfriend. That’s where they ran into Miftari, who had been there with two other people.
All five sat at the bar together, and news accounts suggest they seemed to get along. Reid and her girlfriend left a few hours later and went to the other woman’s apartment.
Miftari is said to have eventually showed up there with a gun and kidnapped Reid.
Police say they found Reid’s body in a ditch near the strip club, a little more than four hours after she left it. Reid’s clothes had been scattered on both sides of the street.
Miftari’s lawyers believe someone else committed the crime, pointing to evidence.
“It was no secret her purse contained a fair amount of money in it,” Butler said. “A fair amount of drugs when they recovered it.”
Jury selection begins Thursday morning. Meanwhile, Miftari remains in jail on $1 million bail.
If convicted, Miftari could spend the rest of his life in prison.