(Anchorage, AK) – Sunday, an Anchorage jury brought a five-week trial to a close, finding Ryan Shane Edwin, 28, guilty of two counts of Murder in the Second Degree, one count of Robbery in the First Degree and one count of Misconduct Involving Weapons in the Third Degree. The jurors were unable to reach unanimous verdicts after five days of deliberations on one count of Murder in the First Degree and one count of Tampering with Physical Evidence. Superior Court Judge William L. Morse declared a mistrial on those two counts.
The jury’s verdict followed evidence that on Nov.12, 2018, the defendant and co-defendant Dwayne Nelson, then 35, met the victim, David Anthony Welch, 28, in the rear parking lot of the Holiday Inn Express at 4411 Spenard Road, in Anchorage. Welch believed he was there to participate in the sale of controlled substances, the terms of which had been agreed to in a series of instant messages between friends of Welch and associates of Nelson and the defendant.
A few minutes after Welch entered the back seat of Nelson’s and the defendant’s vehicle, the defendant, seated in the front passenger seat, turned and shot Welch once in the chest. The bullet passed through his body and the seat behind him, eventually coming to rest in the trunk, where investigators later found it. Welch scrambled out of the vehicle and fell to the ground, as Nelson, the driver, began to speed away from the scene. However, the vehicle stopped, and the defendant got out. He then forced Welch to give him a quantity of controlled substances before shooting him once more.
Welch ran inside the Holiday Inn to seek help. He was rushed to Providence Alaska Medical Center, where he died from his injuries later that day.
The defendant is in custody and scheduled to appear before Judge Morse for sentencing on May 13, 2025. Edwin has six previous criminal convictions, including felony convictions for Burglary, Vehicle Theft and Failure to Stop at the Direction of a Police Officer. His presumptive sentencing range for this offense is 15 to 99 years.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Travis Atkinson and Pat McKay Jr. of the Anchorage District Attorney’s Office Homicide Unit, with the assistance of paralegal Amanda Runyan and Law Office Assistants Kathryn Dufresne and Maelani Johnson.
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