Judge sets murder suspect's conditions, bail at $500,000

Police have charged Carl Leedom, 23, Philip Floor, 24, of Chugiak, and Kennith Upton, 23, with second-degree murder in the killing of Harvey "Charlie" Albright, Jr. 23. Police have said the victim stole Leedom's backpack, took the cash out of it, and left it on the side of the road in the days before he was beaten. His body was dumped on the banks of a river.

Leedom, who was the only one of the three to appear at that hearing Thursday, was already in jail on a drug and gun theft case when he was charged with murder. Floor was arrested Tuesday. Upton was taken into custody in Mountain View on Thursday afternoon, police said.

In a tiny courtroom at the Anchorage jail, District Judge Brian Clark asked Albright's parents if they wanted to address Leedom's bail conditions.

His father, Harvey Albright, stood up.

"The young man there, still got money out there," the father said, nodding toward Leedom, who was behind a clear wall with other inmates appearing before the judge. "He's got drugs to collect -- there's another young woman's life in jeopardy. He gets out on bail, he might kill her too. So I think you need to keep him behind bars."

"And we feel threatened by him," Albright's mother, Brenda, said.

"Yeah, we don't know if our house is going to get torched or anything like that. 'Cuz anybody can whip my kid's head with a pistol, then he deserves what he gets," Harvey added.

"He just stood there and was winking at me. And he flipped me off sitting inside that room," Brenda said, referring to where inmates wait during the jailhouse court hearings, an area visible from the rest of the small courtroom.

"Yeah, he shows no respect --," Harvey said.

"He shows no remorse and no respect for anybody," Brenda said.

"Bail shouldn't be set at all," Harvey said. "He should be stood here the whole time."

In the end, Clark set bail at $500,000 and added the requirement of a third-party custodian to be responsible for Leedom. He said he understand the parents' concerns, but said that was "substantial bail." If there's a hearing to lower the bail amount, Albright's parents will be notified, he said.

Police haven't said whether they believe drugs were involved in the killing. Documents filed in court Thursday provide new details, including that Floor cooperated with police and that Albright may have initially survived the beating.

Family and friends reported Albright missing on Aug. 25. Anchorage homicide detectives began investigating and learned that Albright had stolen Leedom's backpack, which contained cash and other things, a few days before, the charging document said. Witnesses said Albright took the cash and left the pack on a roadside. They told police Leedom threatened to kill Albright if he didn't return the backpack, the charges allege.

Police were told that on Aug. 24, Leedom, Albright and others were staying at Upton's residence on Juanita Loop in Eagle River.

In the early morning of Aug. 25, Leedom called Floor and asked him to come to Upton's place. Albright was sleeping on the couch. Floor told police that they beat him to "teach him a lesson" for stealing the backpack.

Upton was asleep in his bedroom and woke up when he heard the beating, then helped by holding Albright down while the others hit him, police say. At one point, Leedom and Floor tied Albright up and continued the beating. Leedom then pistol-whipped him, police say.

Albright's lips began to turn blue and Upton told the other two men to stop. He wasn't breathing, and Upton and Floor tried to perform CPR. He may have started to breathe again, but remained unconscious, police said.

They put his body in Floor's white Dodge pickup truck and Leedom and Floor drove away and met another person to get rid of it, police say. They dumped it on the banks of a river, which hasn't been identified, then burned Albright's clothes.

Upton stayed behind to clean up the house. One witness said he tried to mop up the blood on the living room couch and floor. He burned everything of Albright's left at the house, police say.

Floor showed detectives where to find the body, the charging document says.

Detectives also found the pack on Harry MacDonald Road, north of the Fred Meyer in Eagle River.

Find Lisa Demer online at adn.com/contact/ldemer or call 257-4390.