Former Kake man, back in Alaska, arraigned on murder charge

A former Kake man is back in Alaska and has pleaded not guilty to a murder charge for a death in that Southeast Alaska community from 2017.

Isaac David Friday, 27, is facing one charge of murder in the first degree for the death of 19-year-old Jade Williams. An indictment by a Sitka grand jury alleges Friday caused the death of another person on Aug. 15, 2017 in Kake.

Friday is in custody at Lemon Creek Correctional Center in Juneau. He was arrested in eastern Washington state Dec. 20. Friday was arraigned via telephone in Ketchikan Tuesday in front of superior court judge William Carey. The case is actually in superior court in Petersburg but was heard in Ketchikan because of a scheduling conflict. The judge appointed a public defender for Friday who entered a plea of not guilty for his client. The murder charge is on top of existing charges of assault from that same year. Carey agreed to keep Friday’s bail amount at half a million dollars.

“It appears Mr. Friday deliberately absconded, or there’d be reason to think that he absconded shortly after the date of this offense, given the timing of the warrant in this case and the other cases, both of which since probable cause has been established with respect to those two assault cases, it just would appear that Mr. Friday presents an extreme danger to the public,” Carey said.

The judge tentatively set another hearing date for Feb. 25.

The assault charges against Friday were never resolved. Alaska State Troopers responded to Kake on July 17, 2017 and arrested Friday. He was charged with assault and criminal mischief in one case for allegedly attacking his brother, and assault in another case for allegedly punching a neighbor on April 18 of that year. He was released on July 20, three days after his arrest and ordered to get a behavioral health assessment. That never happened. An arrest warrant was issued in those assault cases in September 2017. Those cases were moved to Petersburg when the state closed the courthouse in Kake in 2018.