(Fairbanks, AK) – Wednesday, a Fairbanks jury returned a guilty verdict against 36-year-old Wesley Cruikshank of Fairbanks for Murder in the Second Degree. The jury acquitted him of Murder in the First Degree.
On June 16, 2023, the victim and his girlfriend picked the defendant up from a Fairbanks restaurant and drove him to their residence located in Two Rivers, approximately 30 miles outside of Fairbanks. The defendant and the victim were friends, having known each other for approximately eight years.
Upon their arrival, large quantities of alcohol were consumed by all three throughout the evening. At approximately 12:46 a.m., the victim’s girlfriend saw the victim lying bloody on the floor and that the defendant was hitting him. She fled the residence.
The girlfriend called 911. Police and EMS eventually arrived on scene. Efforts by emergency responders to save the victim were unsuccessful, and he was pronounced dead at approximately 1:29 a.m.
The Alaska State Troopers sent out an alert to residents of the Two Rivers area that indicated they were looking for the defendant. At approximately 8 a.m., a Two Rivers resident indicated that the defendant had just left his residence. He indicated that he had found the defendant in his truck that morning, that the defendant had blood on him, and that when he first came into contact with him, the defendant was only wearing boxer shorts.
Troopers, upon receiving this notification, located the defendant walking down a road near the resident’s address. The blood on the defendant’s boxer shorts would later be determined by the state crime lab to match the victim’s DNA profile. Fresh injuries were also observed on the defendant that were consistent with him being in an altercation.
At trial, the defendant testified that he blacked out due to alcohol consumption for an unknown period and that he had no memory of being in any altercation with the victim.
At the time of the murder, the defendant was on conditions of release after having been arrested for Assault in the Fourth Degree on June 12, 2023. The defendant is also a convicted felon, having been previously convicted of Assault in the Third Degree in 2016 and burglary in the second degree in 2010.
Mr. Cruikshank is in the custody of the Department of Corrections and being held on a no-bail status pending his sentencing, which is currently scheduled for Nov. 20, 2025. At sentencing, he will face a sentencing range of 15 to 99 years.
