An Anchorage man who fired a rifle into a downtown crowd more than three years ago, killing a woman and wounding four other people, was sentenced Thursday to a quarter century in prison.
Anthony Lee Herring, 25, was ordered to serve 35 years and a day in prison with 10 years suspended for the death of 37-year-old Jaclyn Welcome, according to a statement from the Alaska Department of Law. Herring had pleaded guilty in August to second-degree murder and first-degree assault counts in the case.
Welcome’s family on Thursday protested his plea agreement and sentence as too lenient.
The shooting that killed Welcome happened early on June 19, 2021 behind Kline’s Tesoro near 4th Avenue and Gambell Street.
Herring worked at the gas station and had gotten into a fight the day before with a group of people who were homeless and gathering behind the business, according to the charging document against him. Herring returned to the area that night in his truck and with his girlfriend who later told investigators that he had “expressed anger and frustration” at homeless people in the area.
According to Thursday’s statement, the shooting began when a male in the group behind the gas station fired a handgun.
“Several seconds later, Herring fired approximately 16 shots from an AR-15 rifle at the group of people,” prosecutors said. “Herring was parked in his truck across Gambell Street in a parking lot with his girlfriend.”
Herring claimed he had been acting in self-defense when he opened fire.
Responding officers found four people shot, with a fifth at a nearby hotel bleeding from a gunshot wound to the head. Welcome died of her injuries soon afterward.
The Anchorage Daily News reported that Welcome’s sister, Desiree Montenegro, objected to the terms of the plea deal in court Thursday. She asked Superior Court Judge Kevin Saxby to reject the plea agreement and sentence Herring to 99 years, Alaska’s maximum term under state law.
The Department of Law’s statement acknowledged the controversy over the plea agreement. A request to speak with prosecutors in the case on Friday was declined.
“The State seeks input from crime victims prior to plea negotiations and gives great consideration to that input,” the department’s statement said. “Ultimately the State determines what offer to extend or accept after carefully weighing the strength of the evidence in the case, the input from crime victims, potential defenses, and risks associated with trial.”
According to the ADN, attorneys for both the state and Herring agreed that the plea was preferable to both sides’ risks at trial. Herring also apologized in court to the victims’ families.
Herring was being held Friday at the Anchorage Correctional Complex.
