On the night of October 4, 2017, in Mountain Village, Alaska, 22 years old, Female, Alaskan Native, Gertrude Queenie and her boyfriend, 34-year-old Alexie Walters Jr., had been drinking at a friend's house. Walters claimed jealousy, dragged the 22-year-old Gertrude Queenie naked from the gathering to his mother's house, and barricaded himself inside. When two village police officers approached, Walters came to the door with a gun and fired, forcing them to flee.
By the morning of October 5, 2017, the 22-year-old Female victim, Gertrude Queenie, was found dead inside the home. An affidavit later described extensive injuries across her head and body and evidence that someone tried to clean the scene.
News that week spread quickly across Western Alaska: troopers said Walters had assaulted multiple people before retreating into the house with the 22-year-old Female victim, and that he had fired at the village officers. He was arrested and initially charged with second-degree murder, multiple counts of assault, and tampering with evidence. Memorial pages and incident logs recorded the 22-year-old Female victim's death in Mountain Village on October 5, 2017.
As the case wound through Alaska's stressed court system, a judge publicly criticized systemic delays in 2019 while the murder trial awaited a defense attorney who could stay on the case. Ultimately, Walters pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for killing the 22-year-old Female victim, Gertrude Queenie, and to third-degree assault for shooting at the two village police officers. The superior court imposed consecutive terms amounting to 40 years to serve—35 years for the murder and 5 years for the assault—followed by probation, and restricted his eligibility for discretionary parole. On appeal in 2023, the Alaska Court of Appeals affirmed the parole restriction and ordered the domestic-violence designation removed from the assault on the officers, but the conviction and the 40-year composite term to serve remained intact.
