Man linked to deaths of wife and daughter charged with double murder

Jalonni Marcel Blackshear, the 39-year-old former Alaska corrections officer previously linked to the deaths of his wife and daughter, was formally indicted in their murders on Thursday.

Blackshear was apprehended in Staten Island, New York, on April 20 after fleeing Alaska when he was charged with sexually abusing his 14-year-old daughter on March 30.

His wife, Raechyl Blackshear, and their daughter were found murdered in the family home in mid-April.

The murders took place on April 4, according to the Anchorage grand jury indictment handed up Thursday. Blackshear also tampered with his wife and daughter’s cellphones, the document says.

The grand jury indicted Blackshear on two counts of first-degree murder, four counts of second-degree murder, two counts of first-degree sexual abuse of a minor, two counts of incest, two counts of tampering with physical evidence, and one count of first-degree forgery.

Prosecutors say the charges stem from incidents from March 30 to April 4 in which Blackshear is alleged to have sexually abused his daughter and subsequently murdered both her and her mother.

Blackshear is currently in federal custody on a federal charge of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution. He will be arraigned in Superior Court in Alaska once he is returned to the state. It wasn’t immediately clear when that would occur.