Two Kenai residents and an Anchorage resident were arrested Monday on charges of sexual assault, assault, kidnapping and drug and weapon charges.
Kenai police officers arrested Kami Wright, 28, and Kenny Kitchen, 25, both of Kenai, and Alex Hawkins, 31, of Anchorage, on Monday after investigating claims that they had held a man against his will and assaulted him.
A man turned up at a neighbor’s home in the Strawberry Road neighborhood Monday evening, naked and claiming that he’d been held against his will and beaten by a man with brass knuckles who had come down from Anchorage to deal drugs. He added that his girlfriend, who was still inside a house down the street, was in danger. After the neighbor called the Kenai Police Department, officers went out to investigate, according to an affidavit filed in court by Kenai Police Department Lieutenant Ben Langham.
Upon arriving at the house, police found five people, including Wright, Hawkins and Kitchen. A search of the house turned up an illegal sawed-off shotgun, a pistol, several rifles and a black stun gun-style cattle prod, according to the affidavit. When the officer asked Wright about the man being assaulted with brass knuckles, she denied any knowledge of it.
The man’s girlfriend, who was still at the home, became “visibly shaken” when the officer asked her how badly her boyfriend had been beaten and said Hawkins had hit him in the face about eight times with the brass knuckles, ordered him to take off his clothes, hit him in the head with a gun, attacked him with the cattle prod and conducted a forcible body cavity search for drugs.
“(The woman) stated Hawkins pointed the gun at (the man’s) head multiple times and told him to shut up or he would blow his jaw off,” the affidavit states.
She also stated that Kitchen forcibly conducted a body cavity search on her twice, on instructions from Hawkins. After the search, the woman said they were both taken to the house, at which point the man fled and Hawkins instructed the woman to write a letter saying she was not being held against her will as a way to avoid kidnapping charges, according to the affidavit.
She added Hawkins had come down from Anchorage to deal drugs and that there was heroin in the house. A later investigation led to police seizing more than 2.5 grams of heroin and methamphetamines as well as two scales, according to the affidavit. A stolen gun was also found in Wright’s bedroom, according to the affidavit.
At the police station, Wright said the man and woman were in a tent behind the house and had been stealing items from the house and she, Hawkins and Kitchen went out to confront them about it, according to the affidavit. An argument ensued, at which point Wright said she walked away.
“Wright stated that she walked away because she couldn’t watch what was happening but was powerless to stop it,” the affidavit states.
When police later interviewed Hawkins, he said when the group went out to the campsite, the man spoke to them from inside the tent and said they didn’t steal anything.
“Hawkins stated that (the man) then became defensive and came out of the tent with brass knuckles,” the affidavit states.
Hawkins said he punched the man twice with bare fists in self-defense and denied hitting him with brass knuckles, a handgun or the cattle prod. He said he told the two to remove their clothes because they were stolen — everything the man was wearing belonged to Hawkins and the woman’s pants were stolen, which was why the man was completely naked, Hawkins claimed, according to the affidavit. He also said he had the man perform the cavity search for drugs on himself.
He said they went back to the house to have the man clean up a bedroom he had been staying in, at which point the man escaped out a window, though Hawkins said he didn’t know why. He said he did instruct the woman to write the note saying she wasn’t being held against her will, and said he had handled the brass knuckles, gun and cattle prod over the past several days, according to the affidavit.
Hawkins is facing one count of kidnapping for ransom, an unclassified felony; two counts of assault in the third degree, a class C felony; and one count of sexual assault in the first degree, an unclassified felony.
Wright is facing one count of kidnapping for ransom, an unclassified felony; two counts of assault in the third degree, a class C felony; one count of misconduct involving weapons in the second degree, a class B felony; one count of misconduct involving weapons in the third degree, a class C felony; three counts of misconduct involving controlled substances, a class B felony; and theft in the second degree, a class C felony. She also has an open case from Aug. 22 in which she allegedly stole a vehicle, according to Courtview.
Kitchen is charged with two counts of sexual assault in the first degree, kidnapping and assault in the third degree, according to Courtview. He also has two open cases, one from July 31 related to stealing a car and setting it on fire in Kenai and another dating from April related to trespassing, property damage, resisting arrest and refusing to leave premises.
Reach Elizabeth Earl at elizabeth.earl@peninsulaclarion.com.
