Crime & Courts

Responders re-create bloody murder scene at Kodiak Coast Guard base

As the second day of testimony in the federal murder case against James Wells continued, jurors heard from a line of uniformed personnel including Coast Guard petty officers, military police and emergency responders.

A maritime enforcement specialist who's part of the Coast Guard's police force, echoed what numerous witnesses have already said: The two victims found two years ago in a Kodiak military building were laying on the floor with sizeable pools of blood around their torsos and heads.

Wells was an antenna maintenance worker who's accused of killing two U.S. Coast Guard members on Kodiak, the second largest island in the United States and home to a major military base.

The murders happened early in the morning of April 12, 2012. Wells is charged with fatally shooting 41-year-old James Hopkins and 51-year-old Richard Belisle. Authorities never found a murder weapon, and the government is arguing the case based on circumstantial evidence. Federal prosecutors say Wells planned the murders, and he was the only individual with the knowledge to pull it off without leaving any physical evidence behind.

As Coast Guard police officer Kristin Small secured the scene on the day of the crime, Wells' supervisor, Scott Reckner, tried to gain entry to what is called the rigger shop. Reckner was frantic and quickly implicated Wells as the murderer, Small testified on Wednesday.

Officers testified they searched the rigger shop and its exterior with weapons drawn after finding the bodies of Hopkins and Belisle, but they did not encounter anyone.

Wells and his alleged victims worked at the building, part of a Coast Guard installation on Kodiak Island. As Hopkins and Belisle were starting their workdays around 7 a.m., Wells allegedly snuck around security cameras to shoot and kill the men with a .44 revolver. The government argues Wells was distraught over grievances about his job performance.

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Reckner allegedly told Small and another crime scene officer that Wells had been having issues at work, and he'd been a "bad employee" the previous week. The defense repeatedly questioned the police officers about Reckner's unsolicited comments about Wells.

Timeframe important to prosecutors

Coast Guard Operations Specialist Michael Haselden testified that when he arrived the morning of the alleged murders, he saw Hopkins driving to the rigger shop. He said he did not see any other vehicles coming or going on the road.

The timeframe of the murders is very important to the government, which argues that the men were killed moments after arriving for work. Minutes after they'd been allegedly killed, Petty Officer Third Class Cody Beaufort, who testified earlier Wednesday, found the bodies.

The government hopes to convince jurors that Wells snuck in, killed his coworkers in about 10-15 minutes, and fled without being noticed by other Coast Guard members arriving for the day shift.

'No chance'

Less than an hour after Wells allegedly shot Hopkins and Belisle, medical responders were on scene.

Coast Guard Fire Capt. William Weth said he was the first of the fire personnel to enter the rigger shop. U.S. Attorney Karen Loeffler asked Weth if he attempted life-saving measures on either of the victims.

"I checked to see if there was a chance to resuscitate. There was too much red stuff on the ground," Weth said. "That's supposed to be on the inside of somebody, not the outside. There was no chance."

Weth declared both men dead.

Despite the captain's accurate assumption, medical responder Andrew DeVies testified he moved Hopkins body, which was lying on its right side, from underneath a water fountain in the shop. DeVies placed a defibrillator on the victim's chest, but Hopkins did not respond.

DeVies said Hopkins suffered at least three wounds to the head, chest and right triceps. According to Loeffler's opening statement, both of the victims had been shot in the head, then fired upon again as they lay dying.

A pathologist will start the third day of testimony, explaining the extent of Hopkins and Belisle injuries. The government argued the testimony is needed to reconstruct the crime scene, but the defense has said the case is about who committed the murders, not how they were committed.

Jerzy Shedlock

Jerzy Shedlock is a former reporter for Alaska Dispatch News. He left the ADN in 2017.

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