Crime & Courts

Jury selection begins behind closed doors in notorious Anchorage murder case

Jury selection started Monday in the state's case against Jerry Andrew Active, the man accused of a notorious 2013 double murder and sexual assault in Anchorage. The case prompted an Alaska Department of Law policy change regarding plea deals and appeared in political ads during the 2014 race for U.S. Senate.

The high-profile nature of the case is expected to make finding an impartial jury difficult, a state prosecutor said.

Active, 26, is accused of murdering an elderly couple and sexually assaulting a toddler, a 71-year-old woman and a 90-year-old woman shortly after being released from jail in May 2013.

On Tuesday, the doors to courtroom 404 at the Nesbett Courthouse in Anchorage, where jury selection was taking place, were locked. A piece of paper taped to the large double doors leading into the courtroom said the parties were conducting confidential proceedings.

The case is heading to trial nearly two years after Active's arrest.

Assistant district attorney Gustaf Olson said in a phone interview Tuesday that the judge moved forward with selecting jurors despite a defense motion to move the trial to Kotzebue.

In general, criminal cases with extensive media coverage create difficulties in finding a fair and impartial jury, Olson said.

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"Obviously, the goal of the (jury selection) process … is having an impartial jury," he said. "When you have extensive media coverage, like with this case -- in addition to the attention it received in the election coverage in 2014 -- it's hard to find jurors without an intellectual bias."

But the state argued that moving the trial was premature. So far, jurors have filled out extensive questionnaires. They are individually entering the courtroom and speaking with the attorneys, a process that's expected to last until late next week, Olson said.

Active's defense attorney, Chong Yim, could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Police received a call on May 25, 2013, reporting that a man had broken into a Mountain View apartment and fled the scene. Cambodian immigrants Touch Chea, 73, and his wife Sorn Sreap, 71, were found dead in the apartment. Sreap had been sexually assaulted, as had the couple's 2-year-old great-granddaughter and a 90-year-old woman, officials said. Active was picked up about a block from the scene, reportedly clad only in boxer shorts and socks.

Active had been released from the Anchorage Correctional Center a mere 12 hours before the murders he is now accused of committing. He had been serving a 150-day sentence after being arrested for a drunken fight at a bus stop, but he was released early.

Two months after Active's arrest, the Department of Law ended a policy that governed negotiating plea deals for lesser sentences for Alaskans accused of serious crimes and domestic violence.

A state review showed prosecutors botched a plea deal involving Active in 2009. Prosecutors made an inappropriately lenient plea agreement after failing to recognize that Active had already been convicted of a felony, according to the review.

Active's early release resurfaced a year later when the campaign of then-Sen. Mark Begich launched an ad accusing his opponent Dan Sullivan, a former state attorney general, of giving light sentences to sex offenders, including Active. Sullivan's campaign quickly produced its own commercial in response.

Both campaigns decided to pull their ads after a request from the attorney for the family of the victims.

The trial is scheduled to continue until April 7, according to online court records.

Jerzy Shedlock

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

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