Crime & Courts

An Arkansas judge has delayed a decision on whether to transfer the Kevin Thornton murder case to juvenile court until it’s clear whether previous juvenile records can be admitted as evidence.

Seventh Judicial District Circuit Court Judge Ed Koon Tuesday gave attorneys ten days to brief him on the issue.

Three Arkansas teenagers are charged with second degree murder in the death of Kevin Thornton of Juneau, who was assaulted July 20th of last year while visiting the Malvern area. Thornton died a week later of his injuries.

The boys were charged in adult court. In October, defense attorneys filed motions to move the case to juvenile court.

Malvern reporter Steve Good was in the courtroom for Tuesday’s hearing.

“There was a discussion in (Judge Koon’s) chambers on whether or not juvenile records had been delivered properly and timely to defense council,” Good said, but it was quickly determined the records had been delivered properly. That triggered the second issue on the admissibility of all of the juvenile criminal records reports.

“The argument is how much of and which of those records are relevant to the possible disposition of the current case, whether or not all can be admitted, some can be admitted, and if some can, which of the ‘somes’ can,” Good said.

Judge Koon halted Tuesday’s proceedings and will resume the hearing on the transfer motion after attorneys file their briefs.

At the time of the alleged assault, two of the juveniles were 16 and one was age 17. Since then, Richard Whybark, who does not have a previous record, turned 18. Clinton Ross and Timothy Norwood, now both age 17, have had past brushes with the law.

Thornton was 19 when he died. His parents, Bill and Darlene Thornton, had traveled from Juneau to Malvern for the hearing.

The parents and other family members of the defendants also were in the courtroom, but Good said they had no contact with the boys.

The three teens wore street clothes to the hearings. Good said both Norwood and Ross, who are being held in Arkansas juvenile correction facilities in different counties, arrived at the hearing in leg shackles and belly chains with handcuffs attached.

Earlier this year, Whybark was released on bond to the custody of his father and lives in the Malvern area.

In addition to the motions to transfer the case to juvenile court, defendants’ attorneys have requested the case be severed and each boy tried separately. No date has been set for a hearing on that motion.

An Arkansas court will hear motions Tuesday on whether to transfer the Kevin Thornton murder case to juvenile court.

Three Arkansas teenagers are charged with second degree murder for the death of the 19-year-old Juneau man while he was visiting the Malvern area in August.

Seventeen-year-old Richard Whybark, and 16-year-old Timothy Norwood and Clinton Ross, were charged in adult court. Defense attorneys argue the charges should have been initially filed in juvenile court.

Prosecutors say the boys attacked Thornton and another man for no apparent reason while they were walking along a road. The teens also have been charged with an aggravating count of violent group activity.

The motion to transfer the case to juvenile court is scheduled for a half-day hearing in Hot Spring County Circuit Court. Defense attorneys filed the motion in October. They say subjecting a juvenile to the penalties available to adults – such as a life sentence without parole – is cruel and unusual punishment under the U.S. and Arkansas constitutions.

Juneau Police arrested a 26-year-old man for assault early this morning (Friday), after finding another man with facial injuries downtown just after 4 a.m.

Lieutenant David Campbell says alleged victim, a 36-year-old man, was taken to Bartlett Regional Hospital and later released.

“He had multiple lacerations to the top of his face, and he was very bloody and he had lots of contusions and abrasions, and swelling to his face,” Campbell says. “We’re still investigating the situation to see if any weapons were used or not.”

Campbell declined to release the victim’s name.

Just before 9:00 this morning, officers served a search warrant at an apartment in the 200 block of Franklin Street, where the assault allegedly took place.

Marcos Galindo was arrested and charged with two counts of assault. He was taken to Lemon Creek Correctional Center, where he is being held on no bail. Campbell says Galindo is originally from California and has only lived in Juneau for a short period of time.

He says investigators think alcohol was involved, based on interviews with Galindo and the alleged victim. The incident remains under investigation.

A downtown business owner, who admitted to not handing over CBJ sales taxes that he collected, has promised to start paying it back.

Larry Lee Lynd, operator of Woolly Mammoth Gifts and Sourdough Larry’s, pled guilty to five misdemeanors in Juneau District Court on Friday. Charges included failure to file or remit city sales taxes.

Lynd was initially charged with 33 misdemeanors last September. But his attorney worked out a deal with prosecutors to make sure that Lynd stays out of jail and resumes paying taxes.

Prosecutors originally sought restitution of nearly $222,912.23 of estimated unpaid sales taxes dating back to at least the middle of 2006. They filed charges against him after a city employee did a controlled buy of merchandise at Sourdough Larry’s and no sales tax was identified on the receipt.

City attorney August Petropolis said “it is not called theft, but it essentially is.”

Defense attorney David Mallet said it was a very intricately created plea agreement that includes no jail time. He admitted that the figure would seem rather shocking. He suggested that it would be fraction of what is owed. This plea and sentence agreement, said Mallet, includes “a very large carrot and very large stick.”

Juneau District Court Judge Keith Levy told Lynd he took money that wasn’t his. Levy accepted a plea and sentence agreement that includes suspended jail time of 180-days and a suspended fine of $1,000 for each of the remaining five charges.

Lynd appeared in court, but he said nothing aside from answering routine yes-or-no questions from the judge and pleading ‘guilty’ to the charges. He provided an Anchorage post office box number as his mailing address.

Lynd must pay back $191,799.17 in restitution while he’s on probation for the next ten years. That number is based on a formula estimate of taxes and does not include the 3.75 percent additional interest that he must also pay.

He can get off probation if he manages to pay back the entire sum early.

Alaska’s judicial system – often considered a model in its simplicity – has similarities to the Italian court system, according to state Supreme Court Chief Justice Walter Carpeneti.

About 18 years ago, Carpeneti found himself in an Italian courtroom.

“A courtroom in Milan, Italy. And I was actually on the bench,” recalls Carpeneti. “I was with four other Italian judges but they were real Italian judges, they weren’t American judges of Italian extraction. You know they’d passed the bar exam and they were there legally.”

Then an Alaska Superior Court judge, Carpeneti took a year-long sabbatical to study the Italian court system. He outlined his experience earlier this month to the Juneau World Affairs Council. It was the first time a chief justice has spoken to the World Affairs Council.

Carpeneti says the court system in Italy is similar to Alaska in that it is a unified, unitary system.

To hear more about the Italian justice system, watch Capeneti’s speech tonight (Friday) on 360 North at 8 p.m.

Juneau police say they’re investigating what appears to be an attempted abduction of a student from near Gastineau Elementary School on Thursday afternoon.

Officers say the fifth-grader was walking away from the school when approached by a man in a small green vehicle. The man told the boy that his mother had asked him to pick him up. But the boy – not knowing the man – asked him for the family password. Since the man didn’t know the secret word and tried guessing it, the boy broke off contact and went home. He told his mother who then called the school.

Lieutenant David Campbell says JPD teaches parents and kids to have a safety password for any potential encounters with strangers.

“We do have two school resource officers that work in the schools,” Campbell says. “And one of the classes that they teach every year to the school district is what’s referred to as ‘Stranger Danger.’ So, that is a pretty standard tool used for parents, and in this case it was a very successful one.”

Campbell says the case is under investigation as attempted child enticement.