Alaska's youngest female murder found guilty could get out after successful appeal

Winona Fletcher at her sentencing on Dec. 17, 1986, for the murders of Tom and Ann Faccio and Emelia Elliott. (Fran Durner/Anchorage Daily News archive).

The youngest female ever convicted of murder as an adult in Alaska might be launched after nearly 40 years behind bars following a successful court appeal just recently.

Winona Fletcher was 14 in 1985 when she and her then-boyfriend robbed and shot to death 3 Anchorage residents-- Tom Faccio, 69, his wife Ann Faccio, 70, and Ann's sister Emilia Elliott, 75-- after breaking into the family's home.

It became an especially notorious case in Alaska's biggest city, both for its violence and randomness.

Fletcher was following the lead of her 19-year-old partner, Cordell Boyd, stated among her lawyers, Marcelle McDannel, whom McDannel stated was sex-trafficking Fletcher.

Fletcher never got a sporting chance to be attempted in juvenile court, because of a basic lack of understanding of youth psychology in the justice system at the time, McDannel stated.

" I would state her youth was utilized versus her, not simply neglected," McDannel said. Winona Fletcher during her sentencing Dec. 17, 1986, for the 1985 murders of Tom and Ann Faccio, and Emelia Elliott.

Fletcher's case landed in adult court after a judge ruled she could not be fixed up in the juvenile justice system. When she was 15, she pleaded no contest to three counts of murder, and she was sentenced to the optimum penalty: 297 years in prison, which was later lowered to 135 years.

Now, at age 52, Fletcher might get out, after an Alaska Court of Appeals opinion May 12.

Thinking about Fletcher's most current appeal in the case, the court mentioned U.S. Supreme Court decisions, beginning in 2005 that "modified the landscape of juvenile sentencing practices" and ultimately discovered that "children are constitutionally different from grownups for functions of sentencing.".

Alaska legal precedent in the years because Fletcher's conviction has also led to a various handling of juvenile sentences.

The state appeals court opinion states Fletcher's case must be returned down to the Superior Court for more lawsuits. That's to identify 2 things: if those legal standards must use to Fletcher retroactively and, if so, what a brand-new sentence should be.

That indicates there's a good chance Fletcher will be released, said McDannel.

" And a lot of this really is due to the fact that of Winona herself and how well she's done and how she's proved everyone wrong about her," McDannel stated. "I mean, she's currently served a life time in jail.".

If the state will argue to keep Fletcher in prison, it's not clear yet.

A state assistant chief law officer handling Fletcher's case said Wednesday the Office of Criminal Appeals was examining what its next actions would be, including a possible petition for a hearing in the Alaska Supreme Court.

Casey Grove, Alaska Public Media - Anchorage.

Casey Grove is the host of Alaska News Nightly and a basic task press reporter at Alaska Public Media with an emphasis on criminal offense and courts. Reach him at cgrove@alaskapublic.org.