By Suzanne Downing 
Alaska’s courts have seen an unusually busy stretch over the past several days, with cold cases, long-running investigations, sexual-assault prosecutions, homicide trials, and rural and urban cases alike all reaching critical conclusions.
From a 1995 Anchorage cold case finally brought to justice, to homicide and sexual-abuse convictions spanning Fairbanks, Bethel, Klawock, and Anchorage, the past 72 hours marked one of the most active periods for violent-crime resolutions in recent months.
Below is a rundown of some of the major cases decided between Nov. 18 and Nov. 21.
Anchorage cold case: 1995 sexual assault finally resolved
Superior Court Judge Andrew Peterson on Friday sentenced 53-year-old Ronald Fischer to 25 years with 10 years suspended for the 1995 sexual assault of a 17-year-old Anchorage girl.
The case was one of the city’s most enduring unsolved assaults and was solved nearly three decades later through DNA advances and renewed cold-case work.
The attack occurred in the early morning of Feb. 17, 1995, when the teenager was grabbed on Northway Avenue, dragged behind a restaurant, and sexually assaulted at knifepoint. Despite an immediate police response and a sexual-assault kit collected at the Anchorage Native Medical Center, the lack of a DNA database at the time meant investigators could not identify a suspect.
The breakthrough came in 2022, when the long-preserved kit was tested under the Alaska Capital Project. A DNA profile matched Fischer through CODIS, the national database Alaska joined in 2002. The victim later identified Fischer in a photo lineup nearly 30 years after the assault.
Fischer was convicted by an Anchorage jury in May 2025. Because sentencing laws were more lenient in 1995, the court applied the statutes in effect at the time. Judge Peterson said the victim’s statement was among the most powerful he had heard on the bench, calling the attack a “nightmare scenario.”
Fairbanks Murder Case: Oktollik sentenced to 65 years
Also on Friday, Fairbanks Superior Court Judge Brent Bennett sentenced 29-year-old Christopher Oktollik to 65 years in prison for the 2023 murder of 35-year-old Lawrence McMullen Jr.
McMullen was found shot in the parking lot of the Alaska Motel on April 9, 2023. He had suffered four gunshot wounds to the back and one to the thigh. A sprawling investigation, spanning witness interviews, surveillance video, analysis of shell casings, and ballistics work at the Alaska Crime Lab, ultimately identified Oktollik as the shooter.
A jury convicted him of Murder in the First Degree in July. Prosecutors had asked for 75 years; the defense asked for 40. Judge Bennett said deterrence and community safety required a substantial term.
Klawock Case: Hayes sentenced on attempted sexual abuse
In Ketchikan Superior Court on Friday, Judge Daniel Doty sentenced Joshua Hayes, 24, of Prince of Wales Island, to four years with two suspended and five years’ probation after Hayes pleaded guilty to Attempted Sexual Abuse of a Minor in the Second Degree.
The case involved substantial steps taken toward engaging in sexual contact with two girls under the age of 13 in Klawock in 2022. Hayes must also complete sex-offender treatment and register as a sex offender. The investigation began with the Klawock Police Department and was completed by the Alaska State Troopers after the local department closed temporarily in 2023.
Fairbanks: Lamborn sentenced in sexual-abuse case
Fairbanks Superior Court Judge Brent Bennett also sentenced 51-year-old Andrew Lamborn to a composite sentence of seven years to serve for two convictions of Sexual Abuse of a Minor in the Second Degree.
Lamborn was convicted in May of sexually abusing a 13-year-old family member during a 2019 overnight stay. Prosecutors sought 9 years to serve; the judge imposed 7 years to serve with 14 years suspended and 10 years of probation. The victim testified at trial and faced her abuser in court.
Bethel Jury Convicts Jonathan David on Multiple Sex-Assault Counts
After a week-long trial, a Bethel jury on Wednesday found 38-year-old Jonathan David guilty of two counts of Sexual Assault in the First Degree, three counts of Sexual Assault in the Second Degree, two counts of Incest, and one count of Resisting or Interfering with Arrest.
The charges stem from multiple 2021 assaults against a family member. David had previously been convicted of Attempted Sexual Abuse of a Minor involving the same victim. He remains in custody with no bail. Sentencing is scheduled for March 20, 2026, and he faces up to 99 years on each of the major charges.
Anchorage Jury Convicts Dummler in Cold-Morning Killing
On Tuesday, an Anchorage jury convicted Ryan Michael Dummler of First-Degree Murder and two counts of Second-Degree Murder for the killing of John William Martin III in June 2023.
Evidence showed that just before 5 am on June 15, Dummler approached Martin, who was sleeping behind a utility box on the Global Credit Union property near Dimond and King Street, yelled at him, then fired eight rounds, striking him seven times. Dummler then walked to his job at a nearby Burger King, where police arrested him minutes after his shift began.
A Glock 19x handgun found in his backpack matched the shell casings at the scene. Dummler’s sentencing is set for March 23, 2026, with a possible range of 30 to 99 years.
While Alaska’s courts regularly handle a steady volume of criminal matters, the past several days brought an unusually concentrated series of outcomes in violent-crime cases, some dating back decades, others involving recent homicides, and several tied to vulnerable victims in rural and urban communities.
For victims, families, prosecutors, investigators, and communities across Alaska, this rapid sequence of verdicts and sentencings closed chapters on cases that have lingered from the 1995 cold case finally solved to the Bethel and Fairbanks trials that demanded extensive coordination and forensic work.
It marks one of the busiest stretches for violent-crime resolutions in Alaska’s criminal justice system in years.
Sounds like Alaska needs the death penalty “an eye for an eye” take a life then give your own life for taking someone else’s life or stealing the childhood or life of a child by sexually abusing a minor
Not much justice to the one dead while his killer gets to live his life behind bars
The death penalty will never happen in Alaska because there are far too many crybabies who care more about the criminal than the victim.
The state ought never have the power to impose the death penalty. There is no compensation for an error. The state currently already has a terrifying amount of power which should be reduced (how about we start with onerous taxation and surveillance).
Also, the death penalty is a quick end that a convicted person faces for the suffering (and likely) death they caused. How about years of hard labor in a hard place (like the North Slope or one of our many remote islands). The ethic of the penal colony should be no work, no food.
I agree with your idea.
Let the mosquitos administer the “cruel and unusual punishment”
You do the crime, you pay with time. However, it should be ‘hard time.’ Country club penitentiaries should be recommissioned as mental institutions; real prison time should be spent building or maintaining public infrastructure, using manual labor and tools. ⛓️ ⚒️🧱🧹⛓️
Sure is a lot of time suspended on the sexual abuse and assault cases.
Unfortunately, these pitifully light sentences are typical of the Alaska court system and until we change the way judges are selected, it won’t change.