Seven suspects were led from the city jail upstairs to the courthouse for the 3 p.m. arraignment on March 20. Proceedings took almost three hours. Following grand jury indictments on March 29, five of the seven have been named co-defendants in the shooting of Jamie Kane. (KCAW file photo)
Update, 7-9-21
Christina Quintana pled guilty to one count of felony Assault with a weapon, causing serious injury. She was sentenced to serve 20 years without parole, concurrent with her federal conviction on related charges. Read the story here.
Update, 6-4-18
A federal grand jury in April returned indictments against Christina Quintana, Andrea Avalos, Peter Krovina, Porter Treadway, Holly Chambers, and Eric Morisky. The federal indictment also named a seventh defendant, Aaron Keith Didrickson, who was not identified in the original criminal complaint filed by the Sitka Police Department. View the federal indictment.
Update, 3-30-18
A Sitka Superior Court judge has denied a request to reduce bail for the alleged ringleader behind an assault that left a woman hospitalized with gunshot wounds in both legs.
33-year old Christina Quintana will remain in custody pending $1 million dollars bail, for allegedly breaking into the home of Jamie Kane on the evening of March 18 and waiting while Kane and her boyfriend returned from a trip to the grocery story.
According to court records, accomplices forced the couple inside at gun point, pistol whipped them, and then Quintana shot Kane in both legs.
Defendants Peter Krovina (l.), Holly Chambers (c.), and Porter Treadway (r.) were arraigned on five felony counts of assault, robbery, and burglary as accomplices of accused shooter Christina Quintana. (Daily Sitka Sentinel photo/James Poulson)
At the felony arraignment Friday morning (3-30-18) for all five suspects involved in the shooting, public defender Nathan Lockwood argued that the $1-million dollars in bail was “a rather symbolic amount,” which would be impossible for Quintana to raise. He proposed instead setting bail at $100,000, which he said she also likely could not make but was “at least in the realm of possibility.”
Alaska statewide drug prosecutor Katholyn Runnels argued for the higher bail, reminding the court that Quintana had flown into Sitka only two days prior to the shooting, and had three open felony arrest warrants in California and New Mexico.
Superior Court Judge David George agreed. Given the aggravated nature of the charges against her, the forceful nature of her surrender requiring tear gas, and the outstanding warrants, George viewed Quintana as a flight risk.
“You are a clear and present danger to the community,” he said.
George set a trial date of June 11 for Quintana and her four alleged accomplices: 23-year old Andrea Avalos, also from New Mexico; and Sitkans Porter Treadway, age 36; Peter Krovina, age 40; and Holly Chambers, age 26.
A Sitka grand jury on Thursday (3-29-18) indicted all five on charges of robbery, assault, and burglary. The jury charged Treadway and Krovina each with individual counts of assault. Quintana was charged individually on separate counts of misconduct involving a controlled substance, and two counts of misconduct involving weapons.
Original report, 3-20-18
Bail has been set at $1-million for the alleged shooter in a weekend assault (3-18-18) that left a Sitka woman hospitalized with bullet wounds in both legs.
At least 5 other people are facing felony charges for various roles in the incident, which the local magistrate called “the most dangerous and extreme behavior to come through her court.”
Four of seven defendants to appear in District Court on Tuesday (3-20-18). From left Christina “Lete” Quintana, Andrea”Josey” Avalos, Alesa Williams, and Cocoa Fudge (Daily Sitka Sentinel photo/James Poulson)
At her arraignment on Tuesday afternoon (3-20-18) 32-year old Christina Quintana pled not guilty to a pair felony counts of assault in the first degree, for allegedly shooting Jamie Kane in both legs — in a conflict that Sitka police say is deeply enmeshed in local drug culture.
According to the criminal complaint, Quintana is one of four people who met Kane as she and her boyfriend returned from the grocery store to their home at 3302 Halibut Point Road Sunday evening. An accomplice — identified as 39-year old Peter Krovina — allegedly pointed a shotgun in Kane’s face and ordered the couple inside. Quintana then is alleged to have struck Kane in the head with a 10-millimeter pistol, then used the same weapon to shoot her in both legs.
Krovina was apprehended by Sitka police mid-afternoon on Wednesday, March 21, with the assistance of the US Marshals Fugitive Task Force and Alaska State Troopers, who flew into Sitka late Tuesday evening. Based on the warrant for his arrest, he will be charged with assault in the first, second, and third degrees for his role both as an accomplice and for using a weapon himself.
Seven individuals were arraigned in Sitka District Court Tuesday afternoon (3-20-18) on charges connected to the incident — though not all were felonies. 23-year old Andrea Avalos was charged as an accomplice, for arriving earlier in a vehicle driven 25-year old Sitkan Holly Chambers and removing Kane’s three young children, on the pretense of taking them for ice cream. According to the criminal complaint, the downtown soda fountain was closed, so she abandoned them at the nearby Mean Queen restaurant (with their 15-year old babysitter) and returned to the scene.
Bail for Avalos was set at $500,000. Chambers has also been charged as an accomplice, but was not arrested. Police expect her to appear voluntarily in court.
Both Quintana and Avalos reportedly flew into Sitka on Friday, March 16, just two days prior to the Sunday shooting. They have New Mexico drivers licenses. Quintana has three active felony warrants: One in California, and two in New Mexico.
According to the criminal complaint, airfare for Quintana and Avalos was paid by Sitkan Eric Morisky. Sitka Police Lt. Lance Ewers says the pair were in town as enforcers in illegal activity.
“Their sole purpose here, in our town of Sitka, based on what I’m gathering during the course of this investigation, is that they’ve come here to create hate and discontent, and to intimidate local people who live here, and to work as the muscle behind the drug trade.”
Quintana and Avalos were located, along with Morisky and two other Sitka women, aboard the yacht Rubato in Crescent Harbor on Monday. The criminal complaint states that they had been squatting there without the permission of the boat’s owners. Everyone surrendered peacefully, except Quintana and Avalos, who came out only after Ewers says police resorted to “chemical munitions”:
“They definitely shot somebody already once, and we don’t know if they still have guns. So who wants to go climbing aboard a giant yacht to get them off the boat, right? That would be super-dangerous. So what we did was use a riot-control grenade and introduced CS gas, and it worked like a charm. They came off of that boat and gave up, and were taken into custody without incident.”
Police subsequently searched the boat and found 36 grams of methamphetamine in the forward cabin.
Sitka Magistrate Rachel Jones agreed with the state’s argument for high bail for both Quintana and Avalos. Of Quintana, the magistrate said, “This is the most extreme and dangerous behavior I’ve seen come through this court. The amount of drugs are dangerous. The violent behaviors. Children were involved. The need to gas them out. Warrants out in other states. And it happened only a few days after they arrived.”
According to the criminal complaint, 36-year old Sitkan Porter Treadway was also present during the shooting. He was charged as an accomplice, with bail was set at $15,000. His wife, Cocoa Fudge, was charged with felony vehicle theft.
Other defendants answering charges — but who were uninvolved in the shooting were the 30-year old Sitkan, Eric Morisky, who was charged with one felony count of misconduct involving a controlled substance in the 2nd degree and one count of misdemeanor drug possession; 26-year old Sitkan Alesa Rose Williams, who was charged with misdemeanor drug possession and violating conditions of release for being aboard a boat in Crescent Harbor. And Janet Joseph, who was charged with violating conditions of release.
Jamie Kane, the victim named in the complaints, has not been charged. She was medevacked to Anchorage for additional treatment. Sitka police consider the investigation ongoing and active.
View the complete list of charges here. Not everyone named in this daily log from the Alaska Trial Courts is connected to incidents described in the story.
Notes: This story was modified on 3-21-18 to include details about the arrest of Peter Krovina, the charges brought against Holly Chambers, an interview with the Sitka Police Department, and a courtroom photo.
This story was amended on 3-23-18 to include felony charges against Morisky and Fudge, a misdemeanor charge against Joseph, and to provide a link to the complete list of charges brought against all defendants identified in the story. As of press time, Holly Chambers had not been arraigned. The charges the state plans to bring against her are listed on her warrant.
