Wasilla, AK: Fatal Wasilla stabbing began as domestic dispute, police say

Victim's throat slashed; 19-year-old faces charge of first-degree murder.
By CASEY GROVE
Anchorage Daily News
Published: March 10th, 2012 11:04 PM
Last Modified: March 10th, 2012 11:05 PM
A Wasilla teenager slashed the throat of another man, killing him, during a married couple's domestic dispute last week, according to charging documents released Friday.

The gun and knife fight that ended with 43-year-old Michael Plummer bleeding to death on a stairway late Wednesday in Wasilla led to the arrest of 19-year-old Spencer Johnson in Anchorage Friday afternoon, Alaska State Troopers said. He faces one count of first-degree murder.

Johnson was one of three men who burst into a home near Mile 15 Knik-Goose Bay Road, an Alaska State Trooper wrote in a charging document. The three included Andrew Johnson, a husband feuding with his wife, who went to the house to get a pickup the couple shared, troopers said.

Steve and Evelyn Smith, who own the home, said Andrew Johnson is Spencer Johnson's father.

Andrew Johnson's wife of about a year had holed up at the house for the night after a recent argument, according to the charging document. The Smiths live at the house with their daughter Jessica and her two young children, Evelyn Smith said. Plummer, Jessica's fiance, lived there too, Smith said.

The Smiths said that Johnson's wife is a family friend and had come to them seeking a place to stay for the night.

Plummer was in the kitchen getting a drink of water and turning off lights when the three men burst in, Smith said. A fight broke out, she said. A man associated with the alleged home invaders later reported that Plummer had produced a .380-caliber revolver, the charging document says.

"That's just a complete and total lie," Smith said. "Mike never, ever has had a gun."

There was pushing and shoving, and Jessica Smith told her parents Plummer told the men to leave at least three times. None of the Smiths saw Plummer get stabbed. They found him collapsed on a landing with blood spurting out of his neck.

"So much blood," Evelyn said. "I've never seen anything like it. And Mike didn't know any of these guys."

As Plummer lay on the stairs, Jessica Smith grabbed her father's .44-caliber revolver and shot at the men, the charges say. One bullet struck Andrew Johnson in the shoulder, and Steve Smith fired several rounds as the three men fled in separate vehicles.

The men had started the couple's pickup and the car they arrived in, and the vehicles were pointed out of the driveway as if the men expected to grab the wife and make a quick getaway, the Smiths said.

Troopers responding to a 911 call found a disabled pickup on the side of the road with blood on its hood and tracks showing another car had stopped there. Later, Andrew Johnson showed up at a hospital. Plummer was dead when paramedics arrived at the house, the charges say.

Johnson surrendered Friday in Anchorage at the Federal Courthouse, troopers said. He is held on $100,000 cash bail.