Crime & Courts

Anchorage man sentenced to 46 years for stabbing neighbor to death

Joshua Wagner, 38, was sentenced Monday in Anchorage Superior Court to 46 years in prison for the 2011 stabbing death of his neighbor, Norman "George" Dennis.

Dennis' family packed the courtroom; some offered victim impact statements before Judge Jack Smith imposed the decades-long sentence.

Wagner was convicted on two counts of second-degree murder and criminal mischief in February. Jurors decided he was not guilty of murder in the first degree. The more serious murder charge requires that a jury find a defendant intended to kill his or her victim, while the lesser requires a finding of actions of extreme recklessness.

Smith gave Wagner 55 years with 10 suspended for the two murder counts. He also imposed two years for the criminal mischief charge, a year of which will be served concurrently with the murder sentence.

Wagner -- who had a violent past before his arrest in October 2011, according to court testimony -- will be 68 before he is granted mandatory parole. When released, he is subject to 10 years of probation.

In October 2011, Wagner was living in a camper trailer in a driveway along Nugget Lane near DeArmoun Road and Lake Otis Parkway in South Anchorage. He became acquainted with his neighbors, including Dennis and Dennis' girlfriend, Annie Atkinson. In the months leading up to the stabbing, Wagner started storing belongings in Dennis' garage.

The parties disputed what prompted the deadly fight in that same garage, during which Dennis was stabbed a total of nine times. The prosecution said it doesn't know what happened; maybe it was the accumulation of stuff in Dennis' "man cave." The defense argued Dennis could have been jealous, as Wagner testified he'd been renting a room in Dennis' home from Atkinson while Dennis was away.

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On the stand, Wagner testified he acted in self-defense but jurors disagreed.

Wagner appeared in court Tuesday wearing a dark gray suit and black-framed glasses. He showed no reaction as Smith handed down the sentence, effectively putting him behind bars for most of the rest of his adult life.

At the start of Monday's sentencing, Assistant District Attorney Andrew Grannik played audio snippets of testimony from three witnesses, given outside the presence of jurors. They all said Wagner was a violent individual.

Leah Brown testified that she knew Wagner as a dishwasher at the Tap Root bar in Anchorage. She said she let Wagner live with her for about three weeks, and within that short time, he "got very violent, quickly."

She said Wagner stole her car and threatened to kill her. She filed a restraining order against Wagner, which he allegedly violated.

"I was scared of him and wanted him out of my life," Brown said.

Wagner briefly took the stand to deny the accusations of all three witnesses.

Brenda Dennis, Norman Dennis' mother, said Monday that she had attended every hearing throughout Wagner's court proceedings, and what she heard painted a picture of a continually violent man.

"I've never seen this man once show remorse … he is a man that has chosen violence his entire life, according to his records," the mother said.

Smith denied granting the three witnesses' testimony as evidence during sentencing and did not factor their comments into his decision. However, he said Wagner's criminal past, including three misdemeanor assault convictions and two fights while in custody, would count against the defendant.

The judge said the reaffirmation of societal norms took precedent in his decision.

"We have way too many people who engage in conflict in this community and either resort to knives or firearms or baseball bats. It's remarkable the number of people who are stabbed or shot or beaten on a given week or month in the Anchorage community," Smith said. "The community doesn't like that."

Jerzy Shedlock

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

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