KENAI — An Anchorage woman pleaded guilty last Thursday at the Kenai Courthouse to a charge of attempted tampering with physical evidence. The charge stems from her connection with the July 7, 2012, homicide of Anchor Point resident Demian Sagerser, 40.
Nancie Modeste, 26, was originally charged with felony tampering with physical evidence, but the parties negotiated a plea deal. Modeste received a flat sentence of one year in jail.
In September 2012, a Kenai grand jury indicted Demarqus Green, 20, with first-degree murder, second-degree murder and first-degree robbery, alleging that Green shot Sagerser while robbing him of marijuana. Green and his girlfriend, Modeste, were indicted on another charge of tampering with physical evidence for burning clothing and other evidence connected with the shooting.
A game camera set up by Sagerser provided Alaska State Troopers with one of the clues to who might have killed him. Sagerser set up the camera outside his cabin near Stariski Creek, and that camera caught the image of a dark-skinned man in a red jacket, red T-shirt and a red ball cap walking toward the cabin the night of his death.
Trooper investigators alleged the man in the red jacket was Green.
Investigators with the Statewide Drug Enforcement Unit on the morning of Sept. 5, 2012, arrested Modeste in Anchorage. According to an Alaska State Troopers press release, they discovered three ounces of crack, scales and handguns, among other illegal items.
Modeste told investigators that she told Green to change his clothes and helped burn them and other evidence, Austin MacDonald, Alaska Bureau of Investigations investigator, wrote in an affidavit.
The defendant appeared in court wearing yellow Wildwood Correction Complex fatigues. She chatted with her public defender at length while Superior Court Judge Charles Huguelet managed a handful of other cases.
Her charge was dropped to a misdemeanor, but the court accepted a most serious conduct aggravator, that is, that there were factors in Modeste’s conduct which the judge could consider in sentencing. As a result of the aggravator, Modeste will serve a flat one-year sentence. She said little else than “guilty” when speaking to Judge Huguelet.
“I think 12 months is adequate … because she’s facing consequences up in Anchorage,” said Assistant District Attorney Ben Jaffa, referring to the drug charges that stem from her September arrest in Anchorage.
Jerzy Shedlock is a reporter for the Peninsula Clarion.