Edition of Thursday, October 1, 2026

Felony assault charge in Fairbanks case amended to a misdemeanor

The single count against Jerald Burton, filed Sept. 20 at Fairbanks, has been amended from assault in the second degree, a Class B felony, to assault in the fourth degree, a Class A misdemeanor. The court file records the amendment with a stage date of Sept. 30 and lists the original charge alongside the amended one.

A preliminary hearing was held Sept. 30 in Courtroom 102, and the docket records a charging document amending Count I, filed the same day. A second preliminary hearing is set for Oct. 8, a pre-trial conference for Nov. 5 and a trial week for Nov. 16. The count is not recorded as domestic violence related. The case is on a complaint and has not been presented to a grand jury. Burton is charged, not convicted.

Source: Alaska CourtView, 4FA-26-01866CR

Sentencing in Fairbanks child homicide case reset to January

Sentencing for Cedar Mae Sarten, convicted in May of two counts of murder in the first degree and one count of murder in the second degree in the death of a child, has been reset. The court file now records a sentencing hearing on Jan. 29, 2027, at 8:45 a.m. in Courtroom 402. The Nov. 6 sentencing date is marked as reset; a status hearing remains on the calendar for Nov. 6 at 9:00 a.m.

A status hearing held Sept. 30 at 2:30 p.m. is recorded as continued. The State filed its sentencing memorandum and notice under Criminal Rule 32.1 on Sept. 25; a presentence report was filed Aug. 28. The record does not state why the sentencing date moved.

Source: Alaska CourtView, 4FA-24-02118CR

Three felony counts filed over a Fairbanks vehicle theft and a forged title

Madisyn Jane Wallace was charged Sept. 30 with vehicle theft in the first degree, forgery in the second degree and forging or altering an assignment of title or security interest, all Class C felonies, together with one count of violating conditions of release for a misdemeanor, a Class B misdemeanor. All four counts are dated Sept. 28 at Fairbanks.

She was arraigned Sept. 30 in Courtroom 102, counsel was appointed and conditions of release were entered. Preliminary hearings are set for Oct. 8 and Oct. 20. The case is on an information and has not been presented to a grand jury. Wallace is charged, not convicted.

Source: Alaska Court System weekly criminal charges report, run Sept. 30 · Alaska CourtView, 4FA-26-01980CR

Felony assault charge filed in Fairbanks domestic violence case; warrant requested

Levi Dylan Skulstad was charged Sept. 30 with assault in the third degree, causing injury with a weapon, a Class C felony dated July 29, and two counts of assault in the fourth degree, Class A misdemeanors dated Sept. 27 and Sept. 29. All three counts are at Fairbanks and all three are recorded by the court as domestic violence related.

The docket records the charging document filed Sept. 30 and a warrant requested the same day. No hearing is calendared, no attorney is entered for the defendant, and the record does not state that an arrest has been made. The case is on a complaint. Skulstad is charged, not convicted.

Source: Alaska CourtView, 4FA-26-01982CR

Two misdemeanor assault charges filed in a Fairbanks domestic violence case

Annette Ward was charged Sept. 30 with assault in the fourth degree, recorded by the court as domestic violence related, and with assault when a child is present. Both are Class A misdemeanors and both counts are dated July 26 at Fairbanks. The charges were filed on a state complaint; no hearing is calendared. Ward is charged, not convicted.

Source: Alaska CourtView, 4FA-26-01979CR

Troopers arrest Fairbanks woman after a reported domestic disturbance

Alaska State Troopers were dispatched to a domestic disturbance in Fairbanks at 11:49 a.m. on Sept. 30. The dispatch states that Taya McGraw, 41, of Fairbanks, falsely reported an assault with a weapon and damaged a television valued at $350, and that she was arrested on charges recorded by troopers as domestic violence criminal mischief in the fourth degree and false report or information, and taken to Fairbanks Correctional Center. The entry was posted at 7:29 p.m.

A court file was opened the same day under 4FA-26-01984CR, with one count recorded as a charging document pending or not filed and no degree of offense. No charge class is stated here because none is on the court file. An arraignment is set for Oct. 1 at 1:30 p.m. McGraw is arrested, not convicted.

Source: Alaska State Troopers daily dispatch, Sept. 30 · Alaska CourtView, 4FA-26-01984CR

Eleven criminal cases filed at Fairbanks on Wednesday, two carrying felony counts

Eleven criminal cases were filed at the Fairbanks court on Sept. 30, according to the Alaska Court System's weekly charges report. Two carry felony counts: a four-count vehicle theft and forgery case and a three-count domestic violence assault case, both set out separately in this edition.

The remaining nine are misdemeanors: assault in the fourth degree; criminal mischief in the fourth degree and false report of a crime; criminal mischief in the fourth degree at North Pole; two counts of second-degree harassment at North Pole; theft under $250; two separate counts of criminal trespass in the second degree; and one case with no charging document on file. Three of the eleven are offenses recorded at North Pole, which has no public police incident feed. Most of the offense dates fall in May, July and August.

At Delta Junction, one case was filed Sept. 30: Matthew J. Fisher, charged with wanton waste of big game and wild fowl, a Class A misdemeanor, and one non-criminal violation, both dated Sept. 10. Not guilty pleas were entered the same day and an arraignment is set for Oct. 6 at the Delta Junction courthouse.

Source: Alaska Court System weekly criminal charges report, run Sept. 30

Court's weekly report adds eight cases to Tuesday's filings

The Alaska Court System's weekly criminal charges report, run at 9:01 p.m. on Sept. 30, now lists 21 Fairbanks cases filed on Tuesday, Sept. 29. The previous run, 24 hours earlier, listed 13 for the same day.

The eight added cases are misdemeanors: furnishing alcohol to a person under 21; driving under the influence at North Pole; three separate theft cases; driving in violation of a restricted license; failure to stop at the direction of a peace officer; and indecent exposure in the second degree with a victim 18 or over.

Filing counts published for a given day are therefore minimums rather than totals, and may rise in later runs of the same report.

Source: Alaska Court System weekly criminal charges report, run Sept. 30

Three defendants arraigned in Superior Court; three bail hearings set

Superior Court arraignments were held Sept. 30 in three Fairbanks felony cases. William Bruce Ostlund faces three counts of second-degree misconduct involving a controlled substance, Class A felonies, all indicted. Joshua Jon Burks faces one remaining count of third-degree misconduct involving a controlled substance, a Class B felony, after prosecutors dismissed a second count on Sept. 29. Alfred L. Nelson faces one count of assault in the second degree, a Class B felony recorded as domestic violence related and indicted Sept. 9.

New dates on the files: a bail hearing for Burks on Oct. 5 at 8:30 a.m.; a bail hearing for Nelson on Oct. 2 at 9:30 a.m., with an omnibus hearing Nov. 5 and a trial week Nov. 23; and for Ostlund a calendar call Nov. 17 and a trial week Nov. 30, with the Oct. 1 omnibus and Oct. 19 trial week both marked reset. All three are charged, not convicted.

Source: Alaska CourtView

Preliminary hearing set for Thursday in North Pole kidnapping case

The first preliminary hearing in the case against Dante Nathaniel Larry Claxton is set for Oct. 1 at 3:15 p.m. in Courtroom 102, with a second on Oct. 12. The file carries one count of kidnapping with injury or sexual assault, an unclassified felony at North Pole, and two Class A misdemeanors at Fairbanks, assault in the fourth degree and interference with a report of a domestic violence crime. All three counts are dated Sept. 22 and all three are recorded by the court as domestic violence related.

A docket entry of Sept. 29 records an order denying a motion to reconsider filed by the State on Sept. 22. The case is on a complaint and information and has not been presented to a grand jury. Claxton is charged, not convicted.

Source: Alaska CourtView, 4FA-26-01890CR

Representation hearing set in Delta Junction felony case

A representation hearing has been set for Oct. 6 at 3:45 p.m. in the case against Pavel Ivanovich Budnik, and the Superior Court arraignment previously set for Oct. 7 is now marked as reset. A bail hearing held Sept. 30 is recorded with no result.

The file carries two Class C felony counts, both indicted on Sept. 29 and both dated Sept. 20 at Delta Junction: terroristic threatening in the second degree, and assault in the third degree for causing fear of injury with a weapon. The second count was originally charged as violating a condition of release, a Class A misdemeanor. Budnik is charged, not convicted.

Source: Alaska CourtView, 4DJ-26-00056CR

Healy records a sixth straight week with no criminal case filed

The Alaska Court System's weekly charges report for Sept. 24 to Sept. 30 contains no Healy section and no mention of Healy on any of its 72 pages, a sixth consecutive week in which no criminal case was filed at that court. Across the four courts inside the Fairbanks area the report lists 83 cases for the week: 76 at Fairbanks, four at Nenana, three at Delta Junction and none at Healy.

Source: Alaska Court System weekly criminal charges report, run Sept. 30

Fourteen days since the state announced a Fairbanks-area case outcome

The Alaska Department of Law has published nothing since Sept. 28, when it announced that the acting attorney general had joined a 23-state challenge to three-day waiting periods for firearms purchases, a civil filing. The most recent Fairbanks-area criminal outcome the department has announced remains a 30-year sentence in a 2012 sexual assault case, displayed Sept. 17 — fourteen days ago, and the only Interior outcome announced since Aug. 11.

The U.S. Attorney's office for the District of Alaska has published nothing new in two days. Its most recent Fairbanks-area items remain a Sept. 18 judgment of more than $1.3 million in a bribery case involving contracts at Eielson Air Force Base and a Sept. 4 sentence of 30 years in a Fairbanks firearms and drug trafficking case.

Source: Alaska Department of Law press index · U.S. Attorney, District of Alaska

Police and trooper feeds show three events in the four days to Oct. 1

Between Sept. 28 and Oct. 1 the two daily public feeds for the Fairbanks area have posted three events in total: a hit and run reported on the Old Steese Highway on Sept. 28, a traffic offense at College Road and Harriet Avenue on Sept. 29, and the domestic violence arrest by troopers on Sept. 30 set out above.

The Sept. 29 traffic offense appeared only after the date had returned no events on three earlier readings, and the Sept. 30 trooper entry appeared in the evening after the page had shown nothing that morning. Both feeds add entries to past dates, so a count for any day is a minimum rather than a total, and no day should be read as quiet because a feed showed nothing at the time it was checked.

The Fairbanks police bulletin covers the city of Fairbanks only and never carries death investigations. North Pole, Nenana, Healy, Salcha and Delta Junction appear only through the trooper dispatch or the court file.

Source: Fairbanks Police Department daily bulletin · Alaska State Troopers daily dispatch