ANCHORAGE, Alaska (TCN) —Â A man has been sentenced to 150 years in prison for first- and second-degree murder in connection with the deaths of his wife and teenage daughter in 2022.
According to a press release from Anchorage State Police, 14-year-old Jayla Blackshear reported in March 2022 that she had been sexually abused, but she did not say who had done it. Her father, Jalonni Blackshear, then 39, became the suspect. He asked his wife, 35-year-old Raechyl Blackshear, to take the girl to the police station to recant her accusation. Raechyl Blackshear took the teen to the station on April 3, 2022, and that was the last day anyone saw either of them.
On April 15, 2022, Raechyl Blackshear did not show up for an appointment, so police officers arrived at her home, where they found her, along with Jayla Blackshear, dead from gunshot wounds in a bedroom.
According to the State of Alaska Department of Law, Jalonni Blackshear killed his wife and daughter on April 4, 2022. Investigators later learned he had left the state on April 6, taking their phones with him and sending texts in which he pretended to be them.
Before flying out, he sent a resignation letter to his place of employment, the Alaska Department of Corrections. Police were able to track the phones and eventually apprehended Blackshear in New York. He was indicted on May 6, 2022, on charges of first- and second-degree murder, first-degree sexual abuse of a minor, first-degree sexual assault, and incest.
On Jan. 27, Blackshear pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the death of his wife and second-degree murder in the death of his daughter. He was sentenced on June 2 to 75 years in prison for each count, to be served consecutively, according to the State of Alaska Department of Law. He signed an affidavit in which he acknowledged that he was the main suspect in the abuse case relating to his daughter. The rest of the charges were dismissed.
Anchorage Superior Court Judge Garton said Blackshear’s control over his family members depended on their remaining silent, and that when his daughter reported she had been abused, he killed both her and her mother, according to Alaska’s News Source.
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