Crime & Courts

Judge approves $1.4M in restitution against Coast Guard base killer

A U.S. District Court judge on Wednesday granted the government's request for $1.4 million in restitution against James Michael Wells, sentenced in July to four consecutive life sentences for killing two co-workers at a U.S. Coast Guard installation on Kodiak Island in April 2012. The prosecutors are asking the court to award the money to the murder victims' estates.

Judge Ralph Beistline called the amount of restitution "conservative" but added that the parties still need to determine where that money will come from.

Wells' wife, Nancy, likely has interest in most of the items the government hopes to obtain and convert into compensation for the victims' families, he said.

Wells killed 41-year-old James Hopkins and 51-year-old Richard Belisle at a Coast Guard communications station, commonly called "Commsta," where they all worked together.

Nicola Belisle, the wife of Richard Belisle, said the money would do little to heal her emotional wounds.

"They can triple or quadruple the amount, but it wouldn't change anything," she said outside the courtroom following Wednesday's hearing.

Wells appeared in court wearing loose-fitting yellow prison clothing. He did not speak during the hearing.

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The murders happened on the morning of April 12, 2012, when the victims were just starting their workdays at "the rigger shop," an antenna maintenance building. Wells was distraught over grievances about his job performance, which included at least one mention of being replaced, the government argued during the trial.

Wells avoided security cameras to shoot and kill the men with a .44 revolver. Authorities never found the murder weapon, and prosecutors argued the case based on circumstantial evidence, without a single eyewitness.

Still, the circumstantial evidence was stacked against Wells, and in April, after a monthlong trial, jurors found him guilty on six counts. When the conviction was handed down, Beistline ordered Wells to pay a then-undetermined amount of restitution.

In a federal court document filed Aug. 29, federal prosecutors wrote they consulted economist Laura Taylor to determine the appropriate amount of restitution.

"Mr. Richard Belisle's future earnings and loss of household services result in a restitution amount of $770,470 ... James Hopkins' future earnings and loss of household services were calculated at $713,005.00," the court document says.

The wives of both men, Nicola Belisle and Debbie Hopkins, attended the entire murder trial earlier this year, at times watching friends and families testify about their personal lives.

In considering the amount of restitution, the government argued, the court "must consider" that both men left behind families devastated by the crime.

"Their losses are substantial; not merely mental and emotional, but financial as well," the court document says. "While the families will never be fully recompensed for the murders, this court must order restitution in an amount which will reflect the full extent of the families' financial losses."

The government called Taylor to the stand to explain how she calculated the restitution. She said she pulled employment data based on the victims' ages and levels of education, then guessed when they would have left the workforce -- in their cases, she expected they'd retire from the Coast Guard around age 62. Things like pensions and future employment were included in the calculation too, she said.

The "household services loss" refers to supportive acts, such as mowing the lawn, cooking dinner and maintaining family cars. The value of those services is drawn from a federal statistical report called "The Dollar Value of a Day."

Assistant U.S. attorney Bryan Schroder said the court could rule that the amount of restitution is a civil matter based on the complexity of the calculation, but cited case law to argue against such a ruling. He said the total amount was "based on well-developed concepts."

Federal public defender Rich Curtner said the future earnings calculations for Belisle and Hopkins were far too speculative for the court to accept, and the household services calculation should be based on the facts and evidence of the case, not just data.

Beistline said both victims were relatively young, as well as skilled, and accepted the government's proposal.

"The figures ... are clearly reasonable," the judge said.

However, the defendant's available assets and whether they're jointly controlled needs to be considered, he said.

Jerzy Shedlock

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

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