A prosecutor on Thursday said a 30-year-old man who was fatally shot inside a Juneau trailer park Tuesday night was murdered \u201cexecution style\u201d by a man hired to help renovate the home.<\/p>\n
Assistant District Attorney Amy Paige said Christopher Dean Strawn, a 32-year-old with a lengthy criminal history, shot Brandon C. Cook in the back of the head at close range for reasons unknown.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s any way that the offense can be described but an execution-style murder,\u201d Paige told Deputy Magistrate Sharon Heidersdorf in Juneau District Court. \u201c… The victim, as far as we can tell from the evidence so far, must have had no idea that this was coming. It appeared to be unprovoked.\u201d<\/p>\n
Strawn was arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder Wednesday morning. Thursday was his first court appearance, and Heidersdorf set Strawn\u2019s bail at $1 million.<\/p>\n
\u2018Not guilty\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n Before the hearing started, Strawn \u2014 handcuffed and seated in the courtroom wearing an orange Lemon Creek Correctional Center jumpsuit \u2014 was intent on clearing his name.<\/p>\n He requested out loud to make a statement to the Empire before the magistrate was seated. It\u2019s against court rules for defendants to speak to anyone in the galley and he was shushed by the court\u2019s judicial officer.<\/p>\n He pleaded not guilty during the hearing in front of the audience \u2014 which included two reporters, a photographer, two Juneau police officers, attorneys and others in the room \u2014 without prompting from the magistrate. (Judges don\u2019t ask for pleas to be entered until arraignment. Thursday\u2019s hearing was what\u2019s referred to as a \u201cfelony first appearance.\u201d)<\/p>\n Later in the hearing, Strawn talked loudly with his appointed attorney, public defender Eric Hedland, protesting the prosecutor\u2019s remarks.<\/p>\n \u201cI would never harm anyone,\u201d he said, adding, \u201cI\u2019ve never harmed anything unless I was provoked.\u201d Hedland reserved his bail arguments for a later date.<\/p>\n Among those listening to the hearing was the shooting victim\u2019s mother, who participated telephonically from Cook\u2019s hometown of Wewoka, Oklahoma. When asked if she would like to say anything, the mother described her son as willing to help anyone and loved by all.<\/p>\n Heidersdorf asked if there was anything else she would like to add. After a pause and the sound of dogs barking in the background, the mother began crying and asked, \u201cMaybe, just why?\u201d<\/p>\n Motive unknown<\/strong><\/p>\n A Juneau Police Department complaint filed Thursday did not shine any light on that question. A witness to the shooting, 26-year-old Tiffany Marie Albertson, described it as completely unprovoked, according to the document.<\/p>\n Albertson told JPD detective Dominic Branson that she was standing just a few feet away from Cook when he was shot. Cook was helping her paint the kitchen in her new trailer at the time, and she had hired Strawn to help renovate the trailer before she moved in, at the recommendation of her landlord.<\/p>\n Police reports do not state whether Strawn was already in the trailer or if he entered unannounced when the shooting took place around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday. ADA Paige indicated in the courtroom that Strawn had been in the trailer but then left and came back with a shotgun.<\/p>\n When he did come back in, Albertson and Cook were apparently not aware of any danger, police evidence indicates. Branson said Albertson was so completely surprised by it, she didn\u2019t even see the shooting happen. She heard Strawn say something to the effect of, \u201cSorry to do this,\u201d and then heard a shot.<\/p>\n \u201cAlbertson said she then heard a loud bang and saw Cook drop to the floor,\u201d Branson wrote. \u201cBehind her she saw Strawn about 10 feet away holding what she described as a short-barreled shotgun with a pistol-style grip. Strawn told her not to be worried because he wasn\u2019t going to kill her. Albertson said she ran to the rear of the trailer and called 911, where she waited for the police to arrive.\u201d<\/p>\n Police arrived within three minutes, and paramedics a minute later, but Cook was already gone. He was found by police on the kitchen floor of unit C16 in Kodzoff Acres Mobile Home Park with a gunshot wound to the back of his neck and head, Branson said in his report.<\/p>\n Strawn had fled the scene, but JPD\u2019s SWAT team apprehended him at his home a few blocks away around 8:30 a.m. Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n \u2018He never saw the gun\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n Cook\u2019s family told an Oklahoma newspaper that Cook died just short of his 31st birthday and just before a return trip home in November. The family has been in contact with JPD about the police investigation.<\/p>\n \u201cHe never saw the gun or had no clue what was about to happen,\u201d Don Cook, his father, told The Seminole Producer. \u201cThe police said he died instantaneously.\u201d<\/p>\n While the witness, Albertson, may not have known Strawn before being introduced through her landlord, Cook did know him. The suspected shooter and victim were acquaintances and had at one point, if not presently, both worked at the Safeway in Juneau, JPD spokeswoman Erann Kalwara confirmed.<\/p>\n The Safeway store manager told the Empire on Thursday that she could not comment but that Safeway will be hosting a balloon release memorial in Cook\u2019s honor at 2 p.m. Monday.<\/p>\n Where\u2019s the weapon?<\/strong><\/p>\n JPD has still not said whether they have found the murder weapon. In repeated inquiries since Wednesday, spokeswoman Kalwara has consistently said she doesn\u2019t know its status or whether it\u2019s in evidence.<\/p>\n A group of Juneau Police Department officers and Alaska State Troopers were seen searching the woods near Kodzoff Acres Mobile Home Park on Thursday \u2014 and even wading in Duck Creek, which runs behind the trailer park.<\/p>\n Sgt. Matthew Hightower, an Alaska State Trooper in Juneau, confirmed his agency was assisting JPD but could not say in what capacity.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not releasing anything because it\u2019s their case,\u201d he said referring to JPD.<\/p>\n In an email to the Empire at about 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Kalwara said she didn\u2019t have any updates about the weapon.<\/p>\n \u201cI do not have any updates for you on the weapon and I don\u2019t know what the troopers were doing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Criminal history<\/strong><\/p>\n ADA Paige requested Strawn be held behind bars on $1 million bail during Thursday\u2019s court hearing, citing \u201ctremendous\u201d concerns for community safety given the alleged offense. Another reason was because of Strawn\u2019s criminal history.<\/p>\n Page told the deputy magistrate that Strawn has at least a dozen criminal convictions that date back to 2002, which \u201crun the gamut from theft in the fourth degree to criminal trespass to disorderly conduct, DUI, failure to stop at the direction of a peace officer, (and) reckless endangerment.\u201d<\/p>\n Among those, Paige said, is a 2006 conviction for first-degree vehicle theft. She noted that past offense in particular because unlike the others, it\u2019s a felony. That means if Strawn is convicted of murder, prosecutors could potentially ask for more than the minimum possible prison sentence. (For first-degree murder, that minimum is 20 years; the maximum is 99 years.)<\/p>\n