DILLINGHAM: After a nearly two week trial, a jury of twelve handed down guilty verdicts on six of the nine charges against Stephen W. Alvarado, 39, of Dillingham. Mr. Alvarado was arrested in 2011 after his daughter alleged to authorities that he had forced her to perform oral sex on several occasions. Alvarado was remanded to custody following the trial, and will spend between the next three decades and the remainder of his natural life behind bars.
The jury convicted Alvarado on four counts of sexual abuse of a minor in the first degree, and two counts of incest. He was found not guilty of an additional two counts of first degree sexual abuse of a minor, and one count of incest. What that means is that the jury found Alvarado guilty of two of the three separate episodes of abuse the state had accused him of.
The abuse happened at the Alvarado home just outside of Dillingham city limits, and the case was investigated by Anthony Wiles of the Alaska State Troopers.
“This is a case about a nine year old girl named S----,” assistant district attorney Mari Carpeneti said in her opening remarks to the jury. “Her father, the defendant, forced her to perform fellatio on him three times when she was six.” Those sobering statements set the stage for the public trying of very sad and heinous crimes.
The victim has since moved out of the state. On day one of the trial, Carpeneti called her to testify about what she had reported to authorities and the Office of Children’s Services three years ago. Sporting cowboy boots and a pink shirt with rhinestones, and with unimaginable courage, the spunky nine year old took the stand and was asked to tell fourteen strange adults that which any decent person would deem unspeakable.
“What did he do to you?” asked Carpeneti.
“I don’t want to say out loud what he did,” she answered back. Carpeneti asked for a short break, and the jury left the courtroom. The victim’s mother was allowed to sit by her side at the witness table, and during the break tearfully whispered to her daughter: “No one’s going to hurt you, sweetheart. I’m right here with you. Please try to tell them what happened, if you can do it.”
“Do you feel nervous?” Carpeneti asked the victim.
“Yes,” she said.
“Angry?”
“Yes.”
“Embarrassed?”
“Yes.”
“Well, I am all of those things too. I am proud of you for being here today. Let’s just both do our best.”
When the jury returned, again: “Do you remember what you told the lady in that video?” asked Carpeneti, referencing a taped 2011 conversation with an OCS caseworker. “You told her what your father did to you. Can you say it again now?”
“Yes. He told me ... to close my eyes. And then ...” The victim described the crime. And then two others, all similar. They had happened, she said, after her father had come home from the summer fishing season.
There was no physical evidence for the jury to consider, and the only eyewitness was the victim’s brother, who reported one incident he had seen to OCS but proved unreliable as a witness at trial. In other words, it was a “he said, she said” case to prove, based on the testimony of an abused young child.
“I don’t know if the jury needed to hear her say those things or not,” Carpeneti said after the trial. “But from my perspective it was very powerful when she said exactly what had happened, not with euphemisms. I am impressed by the resilience she displayed. The fact that she was able to travel back to her hometown, sit in a courtroom, and tell fourteen strangers what had happened, was incredible to me.”
Apparently to the jurors as well, who seemed moved by the testimony.
Mr. Alvarado was represented by Christopher Lesch of the Public Defender Agency. In his opening remarks, Lesch told the jury that Stephen Alvarado was an “innocent man,” and that this was a case about outrage and a rush to assign blame. He said the rush to protect a child is natural, and that the abuses the victim had reported could be attributed to other incidents with other perpetrators.
Two close observers later said that the Alvarado trial was one of the most well prosecuted, and well defended they had seen. Both attorneys were prepared and delivered careful, dispassionate arguments well-received by the jury. The presiding judge, Steven Cole from Kodiak, is notoriously deliberate and was intent on leaving no room for appeals on his court’s procedure. The collaborative investigation between the troopers and OCS was thorough.
Thus, twelve of Stephen Alvarado’s peers carried a heavy burden into the jury room when deliberations began on April 16.
“I am humbled by the work that this jury was willing to do,” said Carpeneti after the trial. “This must be about the worst kind of case you can ask a jury to sit for. But there they were, day after day. They took their time when they deliberated, and went back to review the audio and video evidence. They did their job, and justice prevailed. Regardless of the outcome, I’m glad that our community was willing to pay attention and care, to spend the time, the stress, and energy to figure out what really happened here.”
The jury returned the verdict the following afternoon, Thursday April 17. To a somber courtroom, the jury announced the state had proven beyond a reasonable doubt that two of the three episodes of abuse had occurred.
Judge Cole will sentence Alvarado in July. He faces up to 35 years for each of the four counts of sexual abuse, and up to 12 years for each of the two counts of incest. His right to appeal was preserved at trial.