Anchorage Daily News

PALMER -- More than four years after Tariek Oviuk punched, beat, kicked and nearly slashed the life out of the mother of his children, a Valley judge sent him to prison for 15 years -- with another 20 years tacked on, waiting for him when he's released, should he revert to his old ways.

This puts an end to a case that has dragged on for years.

A jury convicted Oviuk of first-degree attempted murder and second-degree assault in 2005, and he was sentenced to 25 years. But he won a new trial on appeal, and at the last minute, instead of facing a jury again, he agreed to a plea bargain with a 15-year sentence, according to Palmer Public Defender John Richard, who represented him at Tuesday's hearing.

Oviuk had hurt Grace Oomittuk and threatened to kill her before. He'd gone to jail twice for domestic violence against her in Point Hope, where the two grew up.

Oomittuk left him a year before the attack to live with her mother in Palmer and start a new life. She wanted him to see their children but made it clear they were done as a couple. She said she thought he had accepted that. And she believed him when he told her he was trying to be a better man.

After a while, her mother, Connie Fredenberg, against her better judgment, agreed to let Oviuk come for a visit, to stay in the apartment above her garage over Christmas break to help with the kids. They had coffee together in the mornings. Things were going well, she thought. Neither she nor her daughter saw the attack coming.

On Jan. 17, 2005, Oomittuk turned down the latest of his efforts to convince her they should get back together. She ran an errand with her brother. When she returned and pulled into her mother's garage, Oviuk was lurking nearby.

Oviuk, 23 at the time, punched her until she hit the floor, then kicked her in the head. He took a metal baseball bat to her. Then a box cutter.

In the midst of the attack, Oomittuk secretly dialed 911 on the cell phone inside her pocket. A dispatcher heard the terror in her voice as she screamed and pleaded for her life. She promised him she'd do anything he wanted, not tell anyone and clean up her own blood even.

As troopers arrived, Oomittuk ran screaming from the garage covered in blood. Oviuk cut his own neck. He told troopers he had the devil in him and asked them to shoot him.

No drugs or alcohol were involved, investigators said. Before Oviuk went at her, he'd been reading the Bible.

In handing down the sentence, Superior Court Judge Eric Smith said the image that's stuck with him more than any other is Oviuk standing over Grace Oomittuk clicking a box cutter, saying he wanted to talk .

Before being sentenced, Oviuk read a long statement he'd written, beginning with how hard life is in prison and ending with how sorry he is for what he's done

The victim's mother, who's known him since he was a small boy in Point Hope, represented her daughter. She looked right at him as she spoke, and he didn't look away.

"I'm as sorry as anybody we're in this position," she said. "I feel like it was partly my fault because I let you be there. But what is, is. And I think this is your opportunity to do the right thing.

She then asked him to grant her daughter sole custody of their children and to let their son change his last name to Oomittuk. The boy refuses to write his name as Oviuk anymore

"We don't wish you any harm," she said. "We don't. But we also will never be able to trust you.

"It's awful to think of you spending your life in jail. But it's terrifying to think of you not being in jail. And I just can't take that chance with Grace and her kids and the rest of my family."

Find reporter Debra McKinney online at adn.com/contact/dmckinney.

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