Alaska Digest
Two bears hit by cars
JUNEAU - Two bears were struck by cars Saturday night in Juneau.
In the first incident, at 8:33 p.m., a car hit an adult black bear that was attempting to cross inbound Glacier Highway near Otter Way.
The bear was fatally injured, but managed to leave the road and walk into a nearby green belt before dying. Alaska State Troopers removed the bear from the area.
The car sustained minor damage.
In the second incident, at 10:44 p.m., a car hit a black bear on inbound Mendenhall Loop Road near Cinema Drive. The bear escaped into the woods and appeared to be limbing, police said.
The car sustained $4,000 in damage.
Man sentenced to 142 years in trooper killing
ANCHORAGE - A man who murdered an Alaska State Trooper was sentenced again to a 142-year prison term.
Superior Court Judge Larry Card did exactly what he did in 1998 at Friday's sentencing. He sentenced John Kevin Phillips to 142 years for murdering Bruce Heck, who was 43 when he was murdered in 1997.
"He is undeterrable," Card said of Phillips. He said his history, actions and attitude leave no doubt that he has an "ingrained compulsive criminal pattern of behavior" with no hope of rehabilitation.
A jury convicted Phillips, 46, of second-degree murder for killing Heck at the end of a felony crime spree that began on Jan. 10, 1997, one day after Phillips was released from Spring Creek prison.
Before he was finished, Phillips robbed, beat and slashed people at an Anchorage fur store, stole a cab, ran from Heck, 43, in a high-speed chase out the Glenn Highway, then fought with the trooper and left him dead in the snow near Mile 156.
Jurors acquitted Phillips of a first-degree murder charge, opting for second-degree instead.
Judges have broad discretion in first- and second-degree murder cases, with a 99-year maximum available in both. Second-degree sentences generally run from 40 to 65 years, but in 1998 Card gave Phillips the full 99 years plus additional time for the other crimes he racked up that day.
Earlier this year, the Alaska Court of Appeals sent the case back to Card because, the judges said, he misunderstood one of the court's sentencing guidelines. Card appeared to believe that a death resulting from deliberate assault was automatically as serious as a first-degree, or intentional, homicide, the court said.
At Friday's hearing, prosecutor Sharon Marshall urged Card to reimpose the maximum. Defense attorney David Reineke said Phillips should be given "a substantially reduced term."
Given an opportunity to speak for himself, Phillips complained that everyone keeps records of the bad things he does but, "Who keeps track of the good I've done?"
Phillips said he has contributions to make and counsels prisoners who have problems. "I am vastly different than the surrounding inmates," he told the judge.
Card said this perspective is evidence that Phillips has little chance of rehabilitation.
Submarine severs Alaska tug's tow line
PORT ANGELES, Wash. - A nuclear submarine performing routine exercises off Cape Flattery severed the tow line between a tugboat and an empty oil barge Saturday afternoon, leaving the barge drifting in 16- to 18-foot swells.
Navy spokeswoman Lt. Barbara Mertz confirmed the accident Saturday afternoon.
The Alaska-based tug Ernest Campbell was pulling the barge about 12 miles west of Cape Flattery, the west entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, at 2 p.m. when the attack submarine USS Topeka severed the line.
The barge drifted rapidly to the north in high winds. The Coast Guard rescue tug Barbara Foss, which is stationed at Neah Bay, and a private tugboat from Port Angeles were dispatched to the scene, but within three hours the Ernest Campbell was able to reconnect its line to the barge. Under escort from the Foss, it towed the barge into Port Angeles.
Fred Felleman, with the Seattle-based conservation group Ocean Advocates, said it was merely luck that the barge wasn't full of oil.
"For all the sonar capacity the Navy has, they can't look up?" he asked. "They might want to figure that out."