Pair sentenced to 24 years in Spenard apartment fire that killed 3 and injured 16

An Anchorage judge this week sentenced two people accused of starting a 2017 fire at a Spenard apartment complex that killed three people, and injured 16 others, to 24 years in prison.

Several victims in the case who testified Monday during a sentencing hearing in Anchorage Superior Court said the sentence, reached through a plea agreement, was not long enough to reflect the physical injuries and trauma that still impact them daily, even seven years after the fire.

The early morning fire spread rapidly throughout the 30-unit complex in February 2017, leaving some residents with no choice but to jump from second- or third-story windows and throw their children down to be caught by those waiting below.

Andrew Eknaty, 36, and Carleigh West, 35, set fire to a car parked at the Royal Suite Apartments in an effort to conceal an attempt to flee from police that night while West was driving under the influence, prosecutors said. Eknaty and West were arrested in 2018 on 38 charges, including murder and arson.

During Monday’s hearing, Assistant District Attorney Patrick McKay described the traumatic escapes by residents as “the stuff of movies.” He said an extensive investigation cost millions of dollars.

In the hours before the fire, Eknaty stole a bottle of alcohol and the pair drank together, McKay said. West, who changed her name in 2022 from Carleigh Fox, drove into a snow berm near the University of Alaska Anchorage and fled the area after police saw the crash, according to a factual statement included with the plea agreement.

West and Eknaty reported the Chevy Malibu as stolen and parked under the carport at the apartment complex near the intersection of Minnesota Drive and Spenard Road, the statement said. Just after 2 a.m. they started a fire inside the car, which quickly spread to the three-story apartment building.

In surveillance footage, Eknaty was seen returning to the car a few minutes later and trying to throw snow on top of the fire in an attempt to put it out, the statement said. McKay said he believes Eknaty and West had no intention of harming anyone, but had made “a really stupid decision” that resulted in tragedy.

The fire left survivors and family of those who died with lasting trauma, several victims testified Monday.

Honilyn Holder cried as she told Superior Court Judge Andrew Peterson how the fire changed her and her family forever. She returned to the court gallery, too emotional to finish her statement, and her husband, Reuben Holder, hugged her.

“I’m having anxiety just talking about it,” she said.

The couple lived on the third floor of the building with their young children and were planning to move at the end of the month, Reuben Holder said after the hearing. On the night of the fire, they heard a loud noise and saw flames at their doorway just minutes later, he said.

Honilyn Holder tied an electrical cord to a hanger and climbed down to a lower window ledge with their 5-year-old son before tossing him to someone below, her husband said. He said he then tossed their 3-year-old daughter from the window and a police officer caught her three stories below.

[Previous coverage: ‘No other choice’: Dad caught kids as they jumped from fire, but pregnant wife landed hard]

The entire family was injured during the jump: Reuben Holder said he broke his back back and his wife broke her foot. They stayed in a hotel for several months, but the injuries prevented them from working and making enough money to pay rent, Honilyn Holder said. The trauma led her to alcohol addiction, although she said she has since gone through treatment.

The family was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, she said. Honilyn Holder said she still deals with disabling anxiety and constant fear. She said she has trouble sleeping and still often wakes up screaming.

“Prior to the fire, we used to be happy and not scared all the time. I was enrolled in college,” she said. “Our family broke down in every single way.”

West and Eknaty pleaded guilty to charges of manslaughter, first-degree assault and criminally negligent burning in April as part of the plea agreement that called for them to serve 24 years in prison. West also pleaded guilty to a charge of driving under the influence.

The agreement set out a seven-year sentence for each manslaughter charge, which had been reduced from second-degree murder. In a statement read Monday by a Victims For Justice advocate, the daughter of 70-year-old Laura Kramer, who died in the blaze, called the agreement a joke and said it did not bring justice to her family or others impacted by the fire.

Kramer was flown to a Seattle hospital after the fire and died there nine days later, her daughter said. It took officials 12 days after the fire to find her family, she said.

Kramer’s roommate, 63-year-old Vivian Hall, died in their second-floor unit.

Kramer and Hall were best friends, her daughter said. She described Kramer as a loving and adventurous woman who was “always up to try new things and meet new people. She rarely met someone who wasn’t a friend.”

Teuaililo Nua, a 38-year-old mother of two, also died when she jumped from a window after her daughters, her husband told reporters in the days after the fire.

McKay, the assistant district attorney, during the hearing acknowledged that the plea agreement included a significant reduction in charges in a case that had many victims. The case would have been challenging and risky to bring to trial, he said.

Because fires are so destructive, they leave behind limited evidence, McKay said. A federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigation included reconstructing parts of the building and burning identical models of the car where the fire originated, he said.

Had the case gone to trial, McKay said, the state may have also had to overcome an accomplice liability defense, where West and Eknaty may have “pointed the finger at each other.”

Peterson, who accepted the plea agreement, said the sentence appears to be designed to focus on rehabilitation and deterrence. If West or Eknaty violate probation conditions, they will be arrested again and could face up to 36 additional years in custody.

Both Eknaty and West apologized to the victims during Monday’s hearing.

“There’s not a day that I do not wake up and start thinking about how sorry I am for all the damage this has caused,” West said. “I hope everyone can find it in their hearts to forgive me and then some day maybe I can forgive myself.”

Honilyn Holder said she appreciated the apology and said she forgives West and Eknaty. She and her husband said the 24-year sentence doesn’t seem like enough, but they want to see West and Eknaty change their ways.

“No time is going to be enough for what we lost, what we’ve gone through, what other people lost, what they’re going through,” Reuben Holder said. “So that’s going to be up in God’s hands.”