Alaska Man Sentenced In Killing of Neighbor, Another
Posted: Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010 at 11:21 am
Anchorage, AK—A man who admitted to the 2007 killing of his neighbor was sentenced to life in prison, but not before engaging in a verbal spat with the sentencing judge.
Joshua Alan Wade was sentenced to 99 years in prison for the murder of Mindy Schloss, a nurse practitioner. Schloss, 52, was bound, gagged, kidnapped and shot, then left in a wooded area near Wasilla, AK.
Wade also admitted to having murdered another Anchorage woman, Della Brown, 33, by hitting her in the head with a large rock. He then left her partially clothed body in an abandoned shed. Wade made this admission in a signed plea agreement for the Schloss killing, although he had earlier been acquitted of Brown’s murder. An Anchorage jury had found him not guilty of that crime in 2003, but did find him guilty of tampering with evidence. Wade received six and a half years in prison, and it was just months after he was released from this sentence that he attacked Schloss.
State Superior Court Judge Phillip Volland sentenced Wade to 99 years for Schloss’s murder, and additionally required that the parole board make him serve at least 66 years. If he is granted parole at that time—at age 95—he must be turned over to the federal authorities to serve out the remainder of a life sentence for murder committed during a carjacking.
This requirement was handed down by a federal court judge, U.S. District Court Judge Ralph Beistline, who went on to describe him as a coward, as well as selfish and heartless.
To this, Wade responded angrily, “Don’t push it, man.”
The judge said, “I’m going to push it,” and Wade reiterated his threat. Beistline used this outburst as an illustrative example of Wade’s dangerous personality, and as a defense of the lengthy sentence.
Earlier, Wade had offered apologies to both the state Superior Court and the federal court, saying that he deserved much worse. He blamed childhood caretakers, who sexually abused him beginning when he was five years old, for the path of “destruction and failure” which his life followed. He became addicted to marijuana and turned away from religion.
“I chose not to deal…with those abuse issues, chose instead to bury them and allow for it to fester and build into a murderous rage which ultimately resulted in a lot of pain and suffering for others,” said Wade at his state court sentencing, which took place on Wednesday.
Bookmark This Article:
| del.icio.us: 
|
Digg: |
Technorati:
|
Newsvine: 
|
Reddit: 
|
Furl: 
|
|
| Stumble Upon: 
|
Yahoo!: |
Google:
|