Fairbanks police felt their case against the suspects in the 1997 death of 15-year-old Jonathon Hartman, known as the Fairbanks Four, was solid. They had confessions from two of the young men and an eyewitness -- but that didn’t ease the rising tension in Fairbanks as trial dates neared.
On Oct. 21, 1997, nine days after Hartman’s death, Kevin Pease, Marvin Roberts, Eugene Vent and George Frese were led into a Fairbanks courtroom. They were arraigned on charges including murder, but the four suspects pleaded not guilty to all the allegations.
“You've got troopers flanking everywhere,” said KTVF reporter Darryl Lewis. “They took the accused out first through a side door, then they let Hartman's family and friends including his mother leave, and the other side had to sit there until they were out of the building.”
‘SOMEONE OR SOME PEOPLE HAD TO BE CAUGHT’
The tension over the trial in Hartman’s death wasn’t limited to the courthouse, resonating throughout the community.
“This incident helped alarm people,” recalled Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reporter Dermot Cole. “It didn't help -- it did alarm people.”
In interviews with KTVF, people wondered: How could such a violent and random crime happen in Fairbanks?
“We really have a problem when a 15-year-old boy or child can't walk from a friend’s home to his house without being murdered,” one person told the TV station. “Maybe we have to take a look at the environment we live in.”
“What we have to do is stop this B.S. of saying, ‘He did, she did, we did,’ and just join together and figure out a way to work together,” another person said.
And there were questions too. Some in the community were concerned whether police, under great pressure to make an arrest, arrested the right people.
“Someone or some people had to be caught -- the community screamed for it,” Lewis said.
‘I DIDN’T HAVE ANY DOUBTS AT THE TIME’
Scooter Welch, now a retired Fairbanks police chief, was a supervisor on the force at the time of the Hartman case. He says investigators working on the incident never felt pressured.
“I didn’t have any doubts at the time,” Welch said. “I can say in this particular case at the time, we had very seasoned investigators whose only mission was to try and solve the case -- find out what happened, find the person who did the crime, and see that justice is served.”
Others in the community asked if race was a factor. Three of the suspects are Alaska Natives, and Kevin Pease is part Crow Indian.
“And there's a lot of feelings among the Native community that this was a -- that they were arrested because they were Native,” Cole said. “And I think a lot of people believe that.”
Fairbanks police have strongly denied race had anything to do with the arrests. But between the crime and the media attention it drew, the Hartman case remained on nearly everyone’s mind.
“There's nothing in the whole history of the town quite like this,” Cole said.
Over the next few months there were dramatic legal developments. In February 1998 the indictments against three of the four suspects were tossed out because the prosecutor failed to inform a grand jury of potential alibi witnesses.
“This case represents one of the worse abuses of police power and prosecutorial discretion the state has probably ever seen,” defense attorneys in the case told KTVF.
The Alaska Supreme Court would later reinstate the charges, but defense attorneys scored victories when portions of the two confessions were ordered suppressed. Later, George Frese would have his entire confession tossed out by a judge.
“He should have been given his Miranda rights -- I discussed the importance of those all the way back to the beginning of our country,” Judge Sigurd Murphy said. “It’s what our founders were trying to achieve to make sure we had a justice system that was fair.”
Finally, in November of 1998, the Hartman murder case was ready to go to court. George Frese would be the first to stand trial.
‘I REMEMBER SEEING GEORGE AND EUGENE PUSH HIM’
Jury selection began, but with so much pretrial publicity, it soon became obvious to the judge that finding an impartial jury in Fairbanks would be nearly impossible. Over the objections of the district attorney's office the Frese trial, along with the others, was moved to Anchorage.
Police say there was no forensic evidence found at 9th Avenue and Barnett Avenue, and no evidence linking Frese to the crime scene. Investigators combed Marvin Roberts’ car for fibers and fingerprints inside and out, but again came up empty.
Prosecutors, however, still had eyewitness Arlo Olson. Olson told the court how he was drunk but recognized Frese and the other three suspects from 550 feet away, at night, as they mugged Frank Dayton -- who told police he never saw his assailants -- down the street from the Eagles Hall.
“I remember seeing George and Eugene push him and Kevin -- remember seeing Frankie get pushed down and kicked in the head,” Olson testified.
In the courtroom, listening to every detail, was Hartman's mother, Evalyn Thomas. People in Fairbanks raised money so she could travel to Anchorage.
“Someone had to come here and stand up for my son,” Thomas said at the time. “The community of Fairbanks held a fundraiser because I couldn't afford to come here to the trial.”
It took jurors in George Frese’s case a little more than a day to find him guilty of Jonathon Hartman’s murder. He shook his head in disbelief upon hearing the news. Later, as Frese left the courtroom, frustrations boiled over: he cursed and made obscene gestures at the media.
For the prosecution there was relief, and for Evalyn Thomas there was vindication.
“I don't think he'll see the light of day again, and that makes me happy because I don't want him out there doing it to somebody else,” she said.
George Frese was given a 40-year prison sentence.
‘I'M ALSO SORRY I'M BEING BLAMED FOR IT’
Next to go to trial was Eugene Vent. Despite the guilty verdict for George Frese, Vent felt confident heading to court.
“I believed the whole time I was going to be found not guilty, even though they had the little admission,” Vent said.
Vent and his defense attorney, Bill Oberly, planned to call an expert witness to explain how a suspect could wrongfully confess to a crime he actually didn't commit.
“If you read the statements of Eugene Vent and George Frese, that's not the way it went down,” Oberly said.
But the judge hearing the case refused to let the expert testify, ruling that jurors had no way to quantify or test his explanation of why some people falsely confess.
Vent did take the stand in his own defense -- but with the power of that confession and the testimony of Arlo Olson, Vent's case was doomed and the jury found him guilty.
“Yes, I'm sorry that such a tragic thing ended this boy's life, but I'm also sorry I'm being blamed for it,” Vent said.
Eugene Vent was sentenced to 38 years in prison.
‘I JUST HOPE THE TRUTH COMES OUT SOME DAY’
In late July of 1999, Marvin Roberts and Kevin Oease would stand trial together. Despite the outcomes of the first two trials, both were cautiously optimistic.
“We had good alibi witnesses that weren't drinking, that knew times that night, that seen me and seen Kevin -- seen all of us at certain times that night,” Roberts said.
As in the first two trials, however, the testimony of Arlo Olson proved powerful with jurors.
“We the jurors do find the defendant, Marvin Roberts, guilty of the lesser crime of murder in the second degree,” the jury’s verdict was read in court.
Kevin Pease then awaited his fate.
“My heart was beating fast, I mean, really fast -- I could feel it in my chest,” Pease said.
While Pease was found not guilty on the most serious charge of first-degree murder, jurors convicted him on second-degree murder and numerous other charges.
“Whoo -- big sigh of relief,” Pease said. “Then they went to murder two and they found me guilty. And then they went to the rest of the charges and it was like -- I just went deaf. I couldn't even hear nothing.”
Pease and Roberts left the courtroom in chains, while their family and friends left in tears.
Kevin Pease received 64 years behind bars, while Marvin Roberts got a 33-year sentence.
“I did my best; evidently it wasn't good enough, so I'll assume responsibility for that,” said defense attorney Dick Madson. “To the Hartman family, I just hope the truth comes out some day.”
“There had to be sufficient evidence for the jury to render those kind of verdicts -- that's probably why the case went the state's way,” said prosecutor Jeff O’Bryant.
With all four cases going the state's way and with Vent, Pease, Roberts and Frese expected to serve the next several decades in prison, it appeared a dark chapter in Fairbanks history was finally closed. But for many supporters of the Fairbanks Four, there were still many nagging questions that needed answers.
Read Part 1 and Part 3 of "The Fairbanks Four," and see much more on the Jonathon Hartman case at KTUU.com's special section.
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