A 40-year-old Anchorage man, who committed crimes a U.S. District Court judge described as “inhumane,” was sentenced to spend the rest of his natural life in prison on Friday.
Stuart T. Seugasala, aka “Tone,” was arrested in June 2013 and convicted in January 2015 for a string of crimes that included drug trafficking, kidnapping, firearms and health privacy violations. At the sentencing, Judge Ralph R. Beistline said that the nature of the crimes led him to hand down a harsh sentence in order to protect the public from Seugasala.
“You enjoyed being a drug kingpin, you seemed to enjoy the misery that you created, and you enjoyed your criminal posse,” Beistline said, according to a statement from the District Attorney’s office.
Seugasala and convicted murderer Phosavan Khamnivong, aka “P.K.,” smuggled “nearly pure methamphetamine, as well as other drugs” from California into Alaska, the DA says. Nearly five pounds of meth shipped to the two men via the U.S. Postal Service was intercepted by authorities in February 2013.
Prosecutors said during trial that being cut off from their source of income led them to start a series of shootings, kidnappings and assaults in order to recover the loss.
In one case, Seugasala and Khamnivong, along with Timothy Miller, aka “Lil Tone,” and Anoai Sialofi, aka “A-Loc,” kidnapped two men on March 13, 2013, and sexually assaulted them with a hot curling iron because one of the men owed Khamnivong “a past due heroin debt,” according to the DA’s office. One of the assaults was recorded so it could be used to intimidate others who owed the group money.
“This video is who you are,” Beistline told Seugasala at the sentencing. “You enjoyed the drama, the power, the torture, and the sex assault. You were the one that asked that it be created, so you could re-live the excitement, to brag, and to use it for intimidation.”
Two days after the kidnapping and assaults, Seugasala “became so upset” with some diners at the Benson Boulevard Denny’s restaurant that he followed them on the Seward Highway after they left and shot at them several times. The driver was struck in the neck and hand.
The driver and one of the men assaulted by Seugasala were admitted separately to Providence Alaska Medical Center, the DA’s office wrote. Seugasala called Stacy Laulu, who prosecutors identified as a friend of Seugasala’s who worked at the hospital, to find out if either of the victims had told police what happened. Laulu checked their medical files and gave Seugasala private information about the victims, which violated the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Laulu was convicted of HIPAA charges and will be sentenced on May 29.
Along with the three life terms for drug trafficking and kidnapping, Beistline sentenced Seugasala to 10 years each for two HIPAA violation convictions, making him the first in Alaska to be convicted for such crimes, the DA says. Seugasala also received seven years for firearms violations.
Seugasala’s associates have also been convicted, and some sentenced. Miller received 12 years in prison for kidnapping and HIPAA violations, while Sialofi received 19 years for the same charges. Khamnivong will be sentenced June 10.