For a second time James Wease will to go prison for second degree murder. Friday morning Wease was sentenced to 104 years for the death of his wife and on tampering with evidence charges. Earlier this year Wease was convicted of killing his wife, Dana Sena-Wease, in 2007.
Wease was also convicted of second degree murder for shooting a man over marijuana, in 1977. The district attorney’s office said once Wease served 15 years for that death, and then he committed multiple burglaries during the 80’s.
Wease’s attorney argued the fight between Wease and his wife was mutual and that the stabbing, and death of Dana, was accidental. The state said Dana was stabbed multiple times and then her body was dumped along the Seward Highway. Her body was found two weeks after her death by a trapper.
The prosecutors said Wease stabbed Sena-Wease after he realized she had started drinking again and doing drugs and that he then tried to cover it up the crime by painting the walls and replacing the carpeting.
Debbie Hildebrand, Sena-Wease’s older sister, told the judge Wease deserved the max.
“I was proud to be her sister and her friend,” Hildebrand said, “I will miss her for the rest of my life and he robbed us from that.”
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