A 66-year-old man who served prison time for a previous killing was arrested Friday on new allegations that he brutally stabbed his wife to death in 2007 and ditched her body along the Seward Highway, according to documents filed in court.

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Dana Sena-Wease

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James Wease is charged with first- and second-degree murder and three counts of evidence tampering. He was being held at the Anchorage jail on Friday.

Wease was indicted by a grand jury Thursday in the death of Dana Sena-Wease, 43. She was reported missing by her family Nov. 16, 2007, after she didn't show up for work. A man checking a trapline two weeks later found her body in a ravine near Ingram Creek where the Seward Highway turns up toward Turnagain Pass.

Wease made an initial appearance in court Friday, when Judge Eric Aarseth entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.

According to a bail memorandum filed in court Friday by Deputy District Attorney Sharon Marshall, Wease stabbed his wife to death the day she disappeared.

"James Wease killed his wife, Dana Wease, inside the family home," Marshall wrote. "He then went to extensive efforts to cover up the murder. He took the body out to a wooded area off Turnagain Arm on the Seward Highway where it was left for predators."

The Weases had only been married five months at the time of her disappearance. Court records say Wease repeatedly stabbed her in the back, puncturing a lung, in the bedroom of their Spenard home on Nov. 14. Blood stained the carpet and spattered the walls, the memorandum says.

Wease allegedly used cleaning chemicals to clear off the wall and then covered the evidence with dark paint. The day after Sena-Wease was killed, he went to Giant Don's carpet store to order carpet, which he wanted installed immediately, the memo says.

An employee of the store who went to measure the rooms found a section of bedroom carpet missing and noted that "the remaining carpet was only 4 years old and in excellent condition," Marshall wrote.

The carpet pad remained on the floor. Police would later find drops of blood on it that they say came from Sena-Wease.

Sena-Wease's sister-in-law, Laura Sena, reported her missing after she failed to show up at West Coast Beauty Systems on International Airport Road, where she sold beauty supplies. Sena-Wease had problems -- past addictions to drugs and alcohol -- but it was unlike her not to call her family.

About 10 members of Sena-Wease's sometimes tearful family were in attendance at the hearing Friday.

"We're happy. As a family, it's bittersweet, bad. But it's been a long time coming," Laura Sena said after the hearing. "We have waited 23 months for something to come about. ... We just pray for justice, because God knows."

Police from the start pointed to Wease as a suspect in the case but the slaying was officially unsolved until Friday. It was not clear if detectives encountered some new evidence that allowed them to file charges now.

An attorney representing Wease at the hearing, Phillip Weidner, asked that no law enforcement officers contact Wease about the case while he is in custody and objected to the arrest warrant being issued.

Weidner also argued, unsuccessfully, that Aarseth postpone entering a plea in the case until Wease gets permanent representation. Entering a formal not guilty plea, he argued, could constitute "an implicit acknowledgement of the validity of the indictment, and we're not willing to do that."

"He asserts his innocence," Weidner said after the hearing.

Back in 1977, Wease shot a New Jersey man, Peter Evans, four times and dragged his body to a spot along the Resurrection River outside Seward. The motive for the shooting was never clear, but Evans had come to Alaska to deliver 100 pounds of marijuana to Wease, according to court records.

Wease was convicted of second-degree murder in 1978. It was not clear Friday what his sentence was, but by late 1984 Wease was out and committing new crimes, according to court records. He was arrested in December that year on multiple burglary charges. He was again convicted of burglary and theft in 1995, according to court records.

Citing his criminal history, the prosecution successfully argued for Wease's bail to be set at $500,000 cash.

Find James Halpin online at adn.com/contact/jhalpin or call him at 257-4589.

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