Anchorage Daily News

A man accused of stabbing his grandparents to death during a bloody attack in Sitka that left four people dead and a woman hospitalized pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges of murder and attempted murder, according to police.

Jason Abbott, 18, is facing four counts of first-degree murder and one of attempted murder in connection with the deaths of his grandparents, John and Alice Abbott, 69 and 68 respectively, and Charles Tate, 37, who was living at the home and was reportedly the boyfriend of the fourth victim, whose name police haven't released.

Police also would not release the injured woman's name, though she is identified in court records as one of Alice Abbott's daughters. She was in stable condition Wednesday, Police Chief Sheldon Schmitt said.

CRIME LIKE 'LA OR NEW YORK'

"This obviously is devastating on the community," said Marko Dapcevich, mayor of the Southeast fishing community of about 9,000 people. "This is the kind of stuff that you read about taking place in the streets of LA or New York."

Those who knew Abbott and his family were stunned at the news of the town's first homicide in more than a decade.

"That level of hurt -- he was hurting so bad for him to do what he allegedly did. It's shocking," said Phil Burdick, an English teacher at Pacific High School, an alternative school Abbott had attended. "We have some students who are related to his family. It's too small of a community for everyone to not be connected."

Abbott had some problems -- he drank and smoked marijuana -- but nothing that would have suggested he would be capable of what he is accused of now, said Jessica Schwantes, a former girlfriend who had lost contact with him in recent years.

"At least when I knew him, he was a good person," Schwantes said. "I don't know what would have caused this. I mean, he was troubled, but he was a really sweet guy."

Investigators still don't understand the motive for the attacks, Schmitt said. The rampage came just two days after Abbott was accused of assaulting his mother.

COMPLAINT OF 'EVIL COLORS'

According to a complaint filed in Sitka court, Abbott was arrested Sunday morning on a domestic violence charge after he came home in the middle of the night and began arguing and fighting with his mother because there was an orange sign in the house, saying he doesn't like red or orange colors and "believes them to be evil colors."

Then Tuesday, police responded to the home at 524 Monastery St. after a call about 11:45 a.m., when a caller reported a "guy outside stabbing people," with screams sounding in the background. As officers arrived at the address, just blocks away from the police station, they saw two women, Alice Abbott and her daughter, so far identified in records only as M.R., outside and covered in blood, according to a prosecutor's affidavit filed in court.

"The women that were outside the house were alive when police arrived," Schmitt said. "Alice Abbott later died at the hospital."

Jason Abbott was on the front porch of his grandparents' home, holding a 5-inch knife to his throat, the affidavit says. Officers used a stun gun to bring him down, and he fell on his knife, resulting in a minor cut near his eye, Schmitt said. He was treated and released from the hospital, where he told a detective and a doctor that he had stabbed the people with his left hand, the affidavit says.

Officers entering the home found John Abbott sitting at a recliner, covered in blood, according to the affidavit. Police found a woman, identified as E.A. in the affidavit, lying face-down in the bathroom, stabbed in the back and in a pool of blood. Tate was found stabbed in the back in a bedroom.

Alice Abbott was taken to Mt. Edgecumbe hospital, where she died on the operating table. She had been stabbed multiple times on the back, chest, abdomen and had severe defensive wounds on her arm, according to the affidavit.

INVESTIGATORS PROCESS EVIDENCE

At the hospital, Abbott's daughter, M.R., told investigators that she had awakened to hear her mother screaming and gone downstairs to find the woman covered in blood. She saw Jason Abbott standing near the bathroom, holding a knife.

He rushed her, chasing her out the door and into the driveway, where he caught her and began stabbing her as she screamed and begged him to stop, she told police. It wasn't until police arrived that Abbott stopped stabbing her, the affidavit says.

Four investigators were continuing to collect and process evidence from the scene Wednesday, Schmitt said: two city investigators and two forensic scientists from the state crime lab in Anchorage.

"We're kind of stretched with our manpower right now," he said. "There's just an enormous amount of evidence to be processed."

Also Wednesday, Abbott was appointed an attorney, Jude Pate, who said he has met with Abbott but could not discuss the case further.

"He has entered a not guilty plea," he said. "I plan on giving him the best defense possible and defending his constitutional rights."

Abbott was being held in lieu of $1 million bail at the Sitka jail until today, when he is to be transferred to Lemon Creek Correctional Center in Juneau, Schmitt said.

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

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