Federal prosecutors said Tuesday that a 60-year-old man who previously lived in Eagle River and Houston under the identity of his dead stepbrother was sentenced to 12 years in prison for eight felonies.
An FBI tactical team arrested Joseph Keenan May at a home in Eagle River on June 20, 2014. He'd been wanted for sexual battery in Bradenton, Florida, since 1991, prosecutors said.
May had been a sheriff's deputy in Manatee County, Florida, prosecutors said. He fled to Alaska when the potential of facing the death penalty for the sex crime charges "became too much to handle," prosecutors wrote in a sentencing affidavit. Prosecutors say he could still face those charges in Florida.
According to court documents, for more than 20 years, May used the identity of his stepbrother Michael Camp, who died in his teens in the 1970s in Pennsylvania.
Living as his dead stepbrother, May attended the University of Alaska Fairbanks, got a job and married a woman in Fairbanks. The couple raised two children and May had no run-ins with law enforcement for two decades, the documents say.
The FBI got a tip from law enforcement in Florida last year that May was possibly living in Alaska under the false identity, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Bradley.
Social Security investigators discovered Camp had died, "indicating the guy living here was probably not (Camp)," Bradley said.
May was originally charged with identity theft crimes. A month after his arrest, he was charged with three new federal offenses, including possessing firearms as a fugitive and possessing unregistered explosives: an exploding arrow and at least nine hand grenades.
As the investigation moved forward, materials found on May's computer raised red flags, Bradley said.
"(Officers) were going through computer documents and found disturbing writings: hate-filled journals that he had. That increased our concerns that he was a dangerous individual," Bradley said.
That's also when investigators found child porn, he said. May was charged with possessing the illegal materials in November.
May ended up pleading guilty to crimes involving identity theft, possession of illegal weapons and possession of child pornography.
In the journals, May expressed hatred for Muslims, the U.S. president and "other groups," prosecutors said.
May "discussed taking violent actions against those he opposed," they said, adding that U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason found the writings disturbing and thought May could have used the seized weapons to carry out violent acts.
Federal public defender Rich Curtner said the judge said that there were actually two portraits of May presented in court.
"The truth of the matter is his family, his neighbors and others stood by (May) as the person they knew for the last 20 years -- a good father and an excellent provider," Curtner said. "It's hard to tell what happened in Florida decades ago, but that's the person I knew."