A grand jury has reduced the charges against Denison Soria and Leonardo Bongolto Jr, who are accused of fatally beating their co-worker, Jonathan Adams. All three were processing workers at Bering Fisheries in Unalaska.

The co-defendants were initially charged with murder in the first degree, which in the State of Alaska requires intent to kill.  A grand jury indicted each of them on two counts of murder in the second degree and one count of assault in the first degree on Thursday.  Soria has also been charged with one count of tampering with evidence.

Five months after its seizure, the stateless fishing vessel Bangun Perkasa is still tied up at the dock in Unalaska - but not for much longer.  Earlier this month, a U.S. District Court judge formally declared the vessel unclaimed.  Now the government will seek forfeiture so the Bangun Perkasa can be sold – either for scrap or at auction. 

When the Coast Guard intercepted the Bangun Perkasa on the high seas last year, the boat was setting a drift net.  Frequently referred to as ‘curtains of death’, drift nets are indiscriminate in their harvest and detrimental to ocean ecosystems.  They’re also illegal on the high seas, so the crew of the Bangun Perkasa tried to cut their net and flee the Coast Guard. 

Court documents concerning the murder of Jonathan Adams, a 55-year old seafood processor from Vancouver, Washington, tell the story of a fight spun horribly out of control.

Denison Soria, 40, of Unalaska, and Leonardo Bongolto, Jr., 34, of Maple Valley, Washington, stand accused of fatally beating their co-worker outside of the Bering Fisheries bunk house on Tuesday night. The two were arraigned yesterday, and they were both charged with murder in the first degree.

Two men have been charged with homicide, after allegedly beating a co-worker to death.

Denison Soria, age 41, and Leonardo Bongolto, Jr., age 45, were arraigned at the Unalaska courthouse this morning, and both face charges of murder in the first degree. The pair allegedly attacked Jonathan Adams, a 55-year-old Washington man and fellow Bering Fisheries employee, on Tuesday night outside of a company building on Gillman Road. Police received a phone call that a fight was occurring at about 11:30pm and responded immediately, but Adams had already sustained fatal injuries and emergency medical services were unable to resuscitate him.

A man was beaten to death last night outside an industrial building along Gilmann Road.

Details are scarce, but a man reportedly suffered fatal injuries after being assaulted by multiple attackers near the Pacific Stevedoring dispatch office and the Bering Fisheries galley. Police received a phone call that a fight was occurring at about 11:30pm. Officers and emergency medical services responded immediately, but the victim was unconscious at that point and could not be revived.

Bystanders disarmed a man brandishing a gun at the Harborview Bar in Unalaska Monday night.

David Bravo had threatened to “kill everyone he could find” after being thrown out of the bar earlier in the evening.  Sergeant Roger Bacon says fisherman Sione Muliaga overheard the threats and waited outside the bar for Bravo to return.

“But he hid from him, because he was afraid of what he might do and when he was hiding behind the pillar there he saw him come back out of the Unisea Inn after about two minutes.  And [then Muliaga] confronted him and said ‘what’s going on?’ At which point Mr. Bravo said ‘I’m going back into the bar’.  Sione told him that wasn’t a good idea, that they wouldn’t let him back in, at which point Mr. Bravo brandished his 9mm and cycled around, at which point Mr. Sione disarmed him.”

Two brothers assaulted a local woman early Friday morning, after she had stopped to assist them.

The attack occurred just after 2am, outside of the Harbor View Bar and Grill. The victim approached Angel Garcia-Casas and Antonio Garcia-Casas, both age 24, after Angel fell and appeared to be hurt. After she helped the man up, he put her into a chokehold and had to be pried off of her by bystanders. Once she was freed from Angel’s grip, his twin brother Antonio also attacked her, hitting her in the face. The two brothers were arrested shortly thereafter.

The Unalaska Department of Public Safety has found a contraband weapons left in its jail.

Police made the discovery Saturday, following the transfer of four inmates to other facilities. According to Deputy Chief Mike Holman, the two weapons were crudely made, but still deadly.

“One of them was a pen that had paper wrapped around it that had been moistened. As it dries, it hardens, so it stiffens the pen up. The pen had then been scratched so it had a sharpened edge,” says Holman. “The second one was made with strictly magazine paper.”

A 12-year-old case of mistaken identities is in the process of being resolved.

Last week, the Unalaska Department of Public Safety received a call from a Colorado man saying that his identity had been stolen by an Unalaska resident. When police ran a records check, they discovered that an undocumented immigrant had been arrested under his name for stealing a vehicle and driving while intoxicated in Unalaska in 2000.