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Lawrence Fenumiai, the 34-year-old Juneau man charged with killing his Anchorage jail cellmate in a December 2024 assault, will return to the criminal justice system after being found mentally competent to stand trial.

Both Fenumiai and his cellmate, 36-year-old William Farmer, were diagnosed with schizophrenia in their 20s. Their family members say the state should never have housed them together.

Less than 24 hours after Farmer entered custody, prosecutors say, the brief but violent assault occurred, leaving Farmer with a traumatic brain injury. He never regained consciousness and died at Providence Alaska Medical Center in January 2025.

Now the Alaska Department of Corrections needs to house Fenumiai again in a way that safeguards his mental state and protects others in custody with him.

Farmer’s twin sister, Robin Farmer, told the Daily News this week that her family does not want Fenumiai put through the trial process.

“What good would a guilty verdict do?” Farmer wrote in a message. “It would only put him back in the same environment and circumstances it happened in.”

Fenumiai was found incompetent to stand trial in this case three times: in February, May and August of last year, according to filings in the case.

He was found competent last month.

Fenumiai spent a total of 335 days in restoration programs at the Alaska Psychiatric Institute starting in February 2025, according to court filings.

The programs help prepare criminal defendants with mental illness to stand trial. In Alaska, a defendant must understand court processes enough to meaningfully assist in their defense. Otherwise, the charges against them are dismissed.

On Monday, Anchorage Superior Court Judge Josie Garton officially arraigned Fenumiai on the charges against him: first- and second-degree murder.

Fenumiai, wearing a hooded puffy coat over light blue hospital pants, attended the hearing, sitting quietly and without expression next to his attorney. A Court Services officer sat nearby.

Attorneys representing both the state and Fenumiai stressed the need for the Department of Corrections to provide safeguards as Fenumiai transitions back to jail.

Their concern is that Fenumiai could “decompensate” — become unstable or experience a sudden worsening of his symptoms — when he’s moved out of the familiar environment of API into the potentially overstimulating atmosphere at the jail.

“The state wants to be notified as soon as possible if there’s decompensation,” prosecutor Ashley McGraw said at a hearing last week, adding that prosecutors want the case to move along as quickly as possible to avoid future competency issues.

Fenumiai was supposed to be released from jail the week the fatal assault occurred in 2024. A judge had dismissed an assault case involving his father after finding Fenumiai incompetent to stand trial.

Instead, the former high school football standout was still in a general population intake unit with another man when Farmer came into their cell. Farmer was given a bed on the floor of the crowded unit in a cell intended for two people.

The incident raised questions as to how the Department of Corrections handles the challenge of housing people with diagnosed mental health disorders, who make up nearly a quarter of the state’s in-custody population.

Those questions are resurfacing now.

State corrections officials have “consistently failed” to keep people safe in custody, Robin Farmer said this week.

“They failed to keep William safe from harm, and failed to keep Mr. Fenumiai safe from causing harm. Why would anyone think they’ll do it now?” she wrote. “My family and I understand the complexities of a loved one living with mental illness, and although deeply saddened by the loss of William, believe the real criminal is the Department of Corrections and hold no personal hatred towards Mr. Fenumiai or his family.”

Fenumiai’s family declined to comment for this story.

The corrections department completed an internal review of the 2024 assault, according to spokesperson Betsy Holley.

“We are aware of comments made by Mr. Farmer’s family and understand their concerns regarding this situation,” Holley said in an email. “The Department of Corrections will not address allegations or ongoing matters in the media.”

While at API, Fenumiai is voluntarily taking medications prescribed to him, attorneys said during last week’s hearing. He can stay at API through the end of this week.

Medical staff at the Anchorage Correctional Complex will reach out to API staff to coordinate a “warm handoff” when Fenumiai is transferred back to the jail, assistant attorney general Kevin Dilg said during last week’s hearing. That would mean API staff familiar to Fenumiai would be directly involved as jail staff take custody of him.

Fenumiai may be housed in one of the jail’s two designated mental health units, said Dilg, who is representing the corrections department in the case. But that will depend on Fenumiai’s evaluation by staff at the jail, he said.

“I can’t really say a whole lot” until Fenumiai arrives at the jail for intake and assessment, Dilg said.

Fenumiai’s legal team may pursue an insanity defense. Under Alaska law, an arraignment starts a 10-day window for attorneys to file an insanity defense notice.

David Biegel, one of Fenumiai’s attorneys, on Monday asked Garton for a 60-day extension, a request opposed by the state. Biegel said he needs time to not only talk with his client but make sure he understands what they’re discussing.

“Mr. Fenumiai has been charged with first-degree murder. That’s the most serious crime we have in this state,” Biegel said during Monday’s hearing. “I think we all share a concern of decompensation but I don’t think that is any basis to steamroll a decision.”

It’s also possible the case will resolve via plea agreement. McGraw, the prosecutor, said the state has an approved offer.

Garton extended the insanity plea filing deadline to Feb. 17, noting that “there is an interest in this particular case in ensuring that it moves expeditiously toward trial, if it’s not going to resolve in another way, just because of the risk of decompensation.”

This story was published by the Anchorage Daily News and is republished here with permission.

Juneau’s Crimson Bears high school football team is slated to be featured in the most-watched sporting event in the United States this weekend — the Super Bowl. 

In September, a team of five reporters and cameramen from NBC Sports visited Juneau and filmed their game against Anchorage’s Dimond High School at Adair-Kennedy Memorial Park. 

This week, NBC released a short film featuring Juneau’s team — and others across the U.S. — in the lead up to Super Bowl Sunday, when millions of people will watch the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots go head-to-head during the National Football League’s 60th championship game in Santa Clara, California. 

The film examines the impact of football across the U.S. and features longtime NFL sports reporter Peter King. 

“The dedication of some players goes further. Noah Ault plays receiver and safety. He punts, he returns punts and kickoffs, and the aspiring athletic trainer even tapes ankles before the game,” King says, talking about wide receiver Noah Ault in the film.

King interviewed the Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé senior on the field.

“I just fell in love with this sport, and it just makes me happy every day,” Ault said.

The 2026 Winter Olympics kick off in Italy on Friday at 10 a.m. Alaska time with an opening ceremony.

The Games run through Feb. 22 and will feature about a dozen athletes with ties to Alaska.

Here’s what to know about how (and when) to watch them.

But first: Who’s competing?

The athletes with Alaska connections include eight skiers with Alaska Pacific University Nordic Ski Center. They make up half of the 16-skier U.S. cross-country team. On the men’s team: Gus Schumacher, Hunter Wonders, Zanden McMullen and JC Schoonmaker. On the women’s team: Rosie Brennan, Kendall Kramer, Novie McCabe and Hailey Swirbul.

Alaskan Jeremy Swayman is competing on the men’s ice hockey team. Juneau-born Anchorage West High graduate Maxime Germain is on the biathlon team. Also, Alaskan Andrew Kurka is in the Paralympics on the alpine ski team.

There are also two Alaska-based athletes on teams representing other countries. Rosie Fordham is based in Fairbanks but is from Sydney. She’s skiing on Australia’s team. And Anchorage-born Peter Hines is cross-country skiing for his mother’s native country, Slovakia.

How do I know when to watch?

There’s a schedule on olympics.com. It’s a little cumbersome, but the posted times should adjust to whatever timezone you’re in.

If you’re hoping to keep an eye on Alaska athletes, here’s a quick rundown of their first events:

• All 10 skiers with Alaska ties will be competing in Nordic ski competitions. Those start at 3 a.m. Alaska time on Saturday with the women’s 20-kilometer race. On Sunday, the men’s team competes in the same race at 2:30 a.m. Alaska time.

• Team USA’s first scheduled men’s ice hockey game is on Feb. 12 at 11 a.m. against Latvia.

• Team USA’s biathlon team competitions start at 12:05 a.m. on Sunday with a mixed relay.

How do I watch?

There are a few options for watching the Games.

Olympics.com will stream live events and feature some highlights and recaps.

Some TV channels will air events, too, including NBC, CNBC and the USA Network.

The streaming service Peacock will have every event in the Olympics, both streaming live and on-demand. Non-members will have to pay for a subscription as the platform no longer offers free trials to new subscribers.

Are there any watch parties?

The Nordic Skiing Association of Anchorage is partnering with Alaska Pacific University to host an opening ceremony watch party from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Friday at APU’s Earl Brown Theater in Anchorage. RSVP by emailing info@anchoragenordicski.com.

Some bars and restaurants in Anchorage say they plan to screen the Olympics, including Bread and Brew and The Peanut Farm.

Did we miss a watch party? Or do you have questions that we didn’t cover? Email Hannah Flor at hflor@alaskapublic.org. 

In this newscast:

• On Monday, a Juneau jazz musician canceled a show that was meant to be a part of a festival in town this week.  The show was advertised as a fundraiser for the ACLU of Alaska but the organization who planned the festival said they didn’t agree to that.
• The Alaska Department of Fish & Game recently euthanized a sick mountain goat that had a highly contagious viral skin infection that can transfer to humans and pets. The department learned about the goat from a Juneau resident who found it on Perseverance Trail and took it home last weekend.
• The Juneau Assembly is considering whether to ask voters to renew a 3% temporary sales tax and approve two multimillion-dollar bond packages on this fall’s municipal ballot.
• Juneau’s Crimson Bears high school football team is slated to be featured in the most-watched sporting event in the United States this weekend – the Super Bowl. 

A Juneau resident took home a sick mountain goat kid with crusty skin lesions after hiking Perseverance Trail last weekend and contacted the Alaska Department of Fish & Game. Officials say the goat had a highly contagious viral skin infection that can transfer to humans and pets.

“It’s very important that people — if they see a sick or a dead wild animal — that they call Fish and Game, and not try to take it home themselves,” said Kimberlee Beckmen, the wildlife health veterinarian at ADF&G. “It’s also illegal to pick up wildlife and take it home.”

Beckmen said the goat had contagious ecthyma. It’s not always fatal in sheep and goats, but it’s usually more severe and deadly in lambs and kids. It causes skin lesions to develop around openings in the body. 

“When it covers their face, their eyes, their mouth, they can’t eat,” she said. “This recent case — the poor animal was starving to death and was completely dehydrated. It could not see out of its eyes.”

She said the goat probably would have died from the infection within a couple of days, and ADF&G euthanized the animal over the weekend.

In people, the infection is called orf and it’s typically mild. A lesion usually appears within a week of exposure. Beckmen said it’s not fatal to humans or dogs, and the lesions typically go away on their own after several weeks. The virus can transfer when the scabs make contact with openings in the skin. 

But Beckmen said hunters can still eat the meat of an infected animal if it’s handled properly. 

“We recommend that people wear gloves when they’re harvesting their animal and butchering it, and if they see any lesions on the skin or anything unusual, they want to make sure that they clean their knives off before they cut into the meat,” she said. 

ADF&G officials said they get calls about the infection popping up every once in a while. Carl Koch, the department’s area biologist in Juneau, said his team collected a dead goat kid with ecthyma near the Flume Trail in December. He said the department received a call in October about twin goats with the early stages of an infection, and thinks the two that died recently could be them. 

Beckmen said this is not an outbreak or an unusual occurrence. Sporadic cases have appeared in Dall sheep and mountain goats across Alaska since the 1980s, and she said the state is not currently concerned about it affecting those populations.

ADF&G requests that people report ecthyma cases to the wildlife disease surveillance hotline at 907-328-8354, by emailing dfg.dwc.vet@alaska.gov or calling the local ADF&G office. People can also report sick or injured wild animals through the department’s web form.

Koch said the person who took the goat home last week had called the department and left a message while out on the trail, but didn’t get a response since it was Saturday. He said people can call the police non-emergency number at (907) 586-0600 if they don’t hear back from ADF&G about a time-sensitive wildlife issue over the weekend.

If you ask Gov. Mike Dunleavy, a lot of the state’s problems come back to the budget process.

Every year, lawmakers gather in Juneau for four months and spend much of that time debating how the state should spread around its limited funds: how much for education, how much for public safety, and for the last decade or so, how much the Permanent Fund dividend should be.

Meanwhile, much of the state’s revenue depends on the constantly swinging price of oil. Dunleavy says investors who might otherwise bring jobs and new residents to the state have noticed.

“We know that this volatile budgetary process has negatively impacted our ability to recruit investment to the state. It has retarded our GDP growth. It has caused deep fractures within this body and within other relationships, and it leads to uncertainty in funding for critical programs,” Dunleavy told lawmakers and Alaskans in his State of the State speech.

In the days after his speech, Dunleavy filed a series of bills outlining a fiscal plan that he believes would make the budget more stable by boosting revenue and cutting expenses.

It’s a problem Alaska has wrestled with for years: the state spends more than it takes in. Since oil prices crashed in the mid-2010s, Alaska has drawn down billions from its savings accounts, cut government spending and reduced residents’ Permanent Fund dividends in an effort to ensure schools, state troopers, highways, ferries and fish and game management are funded.

Most of the money Dunleavy’s multifaceted plan would raise would come from a sales tax — 4% in the summer, 2% in the winter. The plan would also hike oil taxes, add a new per-barrel surcharge for pipeline corridor maintenance, and capture more money from Outside businesses. It would all be temporary, roughly five to seven years — and in 2031, corporate income taxes would vanish entirely.

On the expense side, it would put a 1% cap on state spending growth every year. That’s not adjusted for inflation. So if inflation runs more than 1%, state spending shrinks. (For reference, the Federal Reserve targets 2% inflation each year; in 2025, inflation was 2.7%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.)

An additional check on expenses in Dunleavy’s plan is what’s known as a sunset review — lawmakers would periodically have to vote to reauthorize various pieces of government.

Dunleavy’s plan would also take Permanent Fund dividends out of the state’s annual budget debates by putting it — and a new formula — into the state Constitution.

“At no point do any of these things add up to get to a balanced budget,” said Neil Steininger, a former Dunleavy budget director who crunched the numbers for the Alaska Political Report, a subscription newsletter.

For one thing, Dunleavy’s plan would fully drain the state’s $3 billion rainy day fund by the end of the 2033 fiscal year, according to Steininger’s analysis — not exactly resolving the state’s budget issues.

For another, Steininger said, the effect of the changes would ultimately make the state’s revenue just as volatile, if not more — exactly what Dunleavy is trying to avoid.

That’s a result of Dunleavy’s proposed formula for dividends, which would take half of the state’s annual draw from the Permanent Fund and split it 50-50 between state services and dividends.

The fact that so much “stable, reliable” investment revenue would be tied to dividends would make the state more dependent on the price of oil, Steininger said.

“That’s a position we’ve been in already,” Steininger said. “That’s actually nothing new. It’s just really cementing that into the Constitution.”

The governor has not held a news conference or granted interviews to discuss his plan since the bills were released, but his office’s projections are substantially rosier.

An updated 10-year plan from his Office of Management and Budget shows a surplus in the early 2030s, peaking at roughly $300 million, before returning to large deficits in the 2035 fiscal year. But the governor’s office still projects the plan would draw down half of the rainy-day fund over 10 years, including a $1.4 billion withdrawal in the coming year.

Dunleavy has argued revenue from things like a boom in oil drilling or a new gas pipeline would help the budget balance in the long term.

“We’re going to be going into what I believe is going to be a more revenue-prosperous era,” he said at a Cabinet meeting before the plan was released.

But that future revenue is speculative, and thus doesn’t show up in state economists’ “cold and sober” revenue projections that lawmakers build the state’s budget around, Steininger said.

“Part of it is because a lot of that stuff will take a long time before it impacts state revenue,” Steininger said. “Even though 10 years feels like a long time … it’s not that long when it comes to trying to get a project permitted, moved and actually delivering revenue to the state coffers.”

Dunleavy’s Department of Revenue presented a newer fiscal model to lawmakers on Thursday, which accounts for revenue from the proposed Alaska LNG project and a new split of oil revenue from the federally-owned National Petroleum Reserve Alaska in the Western Arctic enabled by President Trump’s signature tax- and spending-cut bill.

“That modeling does roughly balance” even after the taxes expire, Department of Revenue Chief Economist Dan Stickel said to lawmakers on Thursday.

So far, the plan has landed in Juneau with a thud. Speaker of the House Bryce Edgmon, a Dillingham independent, said alongside other legislative leaders on Talk of Alaska on Tuesday that he’s not optimistic about its chances.

“The early analysis that we’ve done … would suggest that the governor’s plan, in its totality, would actually increase our problem, it would not lessen it,” Edgmon said.

Even Dunleavy’s traditional allies are skeptical — the Republican House minority leader, Palmer Rep. DeLena Johnson, called his plan “incomplete.”

“I think it’s very difficult to ask your average, hardworking Alaskan to increase their grocery budget” without a serious analysis and reduction of government spending, Johnson said.

But where does that leave state leaders’ search for a solution?

Edgmon and his Senate counterpart said they were intrigued by what they recently heard from a panel of University Alaska Anchorage economists who studied a variety of options at the request of the governor.

Senate President Gary Stevens, a Kodiak Republican, says he was interested in the economists’ conclusion that raising taxes on corporations and oil and gas would have the smallest impact on the state’s economy.

“It’s much more stressful on folks to have a sales tax or an income tax,” Stevens said. “(It’s) easier to accumulate a little higher tax on the industry.”

But in the last year of Dunleavy’s term, Stevens said, it might be too late for this governor to solve the problem.

The House Finance Committee is taking public testimony on Dunleavy’s tax bill, House Bill 284, at 5:30 p.m. Thursday. There’s more information on the Public Testimony Opportunities page at akleg.gov.