A Quinhagak man convicted of kidnapping, sexually assaulting and murdering a 10-year-old girl has been sentenced to 99 years in prison.
Jordan Mark, age 20, pleaded guilty late last year to first-degree murder and signed a document admitting to kidnapping, sexually assaulting and killing 10-year-old Ida “Girlie” Aguchak, according to the Alaska Department of Law. The crime occurred on March 15, 2020 in Quinhagak.
Fairbanks Superior Court Judge Michael MacDonald sentenced Mark to 99 years on Monday, the length argued for by the state prosecutor on the case. No trial occurred.
Members of Aguchak’s family attended the sentencing. According to the Department of Law, her family asked for the 99-year sentence. Aguchak’s mother, Betty Williams, told the court that what happened to her daughter broke their family and the community.
“She was taken too soon,” said Williams. “We are still broken from this.”
In a statement to the court, Mark apologized for the pain he caused and said that he made “a terrible mistake.”
Mark had asked the court for a 45-year sentence. But on Monday, MacDonald made a finding that Mark was to be considered a “worst offender” and that he was “too dangerous to live in a civil society.”
Anna Rose MacArthur is a reporter at KYUK in Bethel.
