Alaska Beat

Another suspected serial burglar with heroin habit facing hard jail time

Three friends in Big Lake, a sparsely populated urban hub in Alaska's Matanuska-Susitna Borough, found themselves in an unusual position when they accidentally ran across a serial burglar in the process of robbing one of the friend's homes. Now, according to the Frontiersman, that burglar faces the possibility of spending the next several decades in jail.

In late Oct., James Conner, Jim Bowe Jr. and Chris Harris arrived at Conner's house to drop off a trailer when they noticed a suspicious man on the property. Joshua Beaty, 25, described by the Frontiersman as "a bail-jumping burglar" with an extensive record was in the process of gutting the house when the three men surprised him. Bowe told the Frontiersman:

Form there things escalated quickly as Beaty resisted and attempted to run Bowe down with his truck. Harris, in the meantime, had located a hand gun and handed it over to Bowe, which Bowe promptly pointed in Beaty's direction. Beaty, however, wasn't backing down. The burglar began to reach for a firearm stolen from Conner's residence. Bowe fired a "warning shot" in response over Beaty's head to let him know he wasn't fooling around.

Beaty backed down and the three men attempted to restrain him, which proved to be a difficult task. The friends later learned that Beaty allegedly has a three-times-a-day heroin habit, which may have emboldened him.

Beaty was eventually subdued and taken into custody by area law enforcement. He faces six years for an earlier conviction and an additional nine for the October robbery.

Read more about the altercation.

Craig Medred

Craig Medred is a former writer for the Anchorage Daily News, Alaska Dispatch and Alaska Dispatch News. He left the ADN in 2015.

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