PALMER -- Eight children whose candy was taken from them at gunpoint by two women on Halloween in Talkeetna, according to Alaska State Troopers, testified Thursday before a grand jury.
Two women -- Kendra Grace Butts, 18, and Amber Marie Martin, 20, both of Wasilla -- were indicted Friday on seven counts of robbery, one of attempted robbery and eight of assault. If convicted, they face a maximum of 180 years each in prison. The minimum sentence for robbery with a gun in Alaska is seven years.
The District Attorney's office added the attempted robbery charge Friday after learning from Alaska State Troopers that one child in the incident refused to surrender the candy. Troopers originally reported seven children were robbed that night on Main Street but Friday said they learned an eighth child hid behind a tree during the incident.
Recordings of phone calls to Butts and Martin from their boyfriends in jail detailed for troopers the two women's involvement in the Halloween stickup, according to an affidavit filed in the case against Butts.
Troopers on Oct. 31 arrested the boyfriends, Michael Scott Wilson and Aaron J. Tolen, both 24, of Wasilla, in a Talkeetna restaurant not long after the robbery. The two were indicted Friday on one count each of hindering prosecution and weapons misconduct.
A troopers spokeswoman, Beth Ipsen, said the troopers' robbery investigation led them Nov. 5 to a cache of stolen goods worth more than $100,000 near Montana Creek Road about two miles from the Parks Highway. The recovered goods are linked to a string of burglaries in the Upper Susitna Valley area. Nobody has been charged in connection with the stolen property or the burglaries.
Troopers also discovered on the same property a plastic pumpkin full of candy bearing the name of one of the children in Talkeetna, according to the affidavit. Ipsen declined to elaborate Friday when asked how the defendants charged in connection with the Halloween robberies were linked to the stolen goods.
Troopers found at the site a Polaris six-wheel all-terrain vehicle, tools and a 1995 Chevrolet pickup.
Investigator Christopher Long in the affidavit filed in Butts' case details how troopers obtained recordings of phone calls by Wilson and Tolen in the Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility in Palmer to Butts and Martin. Long said a corrections sergeant monitoring the jail calls informed troopers Nov. 2.
According to Long, Wilson and Butts discussed Butts breaking into the impound yard to retrieve 14 incriminating items, including Butts' purse, from inside Butts' Dodge truck, seized by troopers Oct. 31 in Talkeetna. Failing that, Butts' was to burn the truck, according to Long.
Ipsen said Friday she could not say where the truck is being held.
"It's under our control, and nobody else has access to it," Ipsen said.
The robbery occurred around 5:15 p.m. Oct. 31, according to troopers. A Dodge truck drove past the children on Main Street, made a U-turn and returned. Two women wearing ski masks exited, one pointed a revolver at the children and then fired a shot into the air, according to troopers.
The women told the children to hand over their candy or be killed, the children told troopers, Long's affidavit states.
Tolen and Wilson were arrested that night at Latitude 62, a bar and restaurant in Talkeetna. They showed up in a Dodge truck bearing the license plate number the children had provided troopers.
The recorded phone calls told troopers that Butts and Martin after the Halloween robbery drove to a cabin where they met up with Tolen and Wilson, according to Long. The women "bragged about robbing candy from a group of kids," and an argument over that ensued, Long states.
Wilson and Tolen left the cabin for cheeseburgers at Latitude 62, according to troopers and witnesses.
Identified by townspeople on the lookout for the Dodge and apprehended by troopers, Wilson gave up both women, but Tolen denied knowing anything about the robbery, according to troopers' accounts Nov. 1. But the jail phone calls revealed that Tolen and Wilson "concealed their full knowledge ... of the robbery" when first questioned.
Find reporter Andrew Wellner online at adn.com/contact/awellner or call him at 352-6710.
