Democrat former House Rep. Geran Tarr invited Trevor Stefano, a convicted murderer, to speak in 2022 at a panel she organized that was focused on improving public safety.
Today, Stefano is cooling his heels in a hospital bed as he awaits justice for shooting a man in the Government Hill neighborhood of Anchorage on Wednesday. Police stopped him as he was actively shooting a lawyer at his home. There is some indication that Stefano had worked for the lawyer as a paralegal. Stefano has a court record that is disturbing in that he has also been accused of domestic violence, after he was released from prison, where he only served 12 years for murder.
But Tarr wasn’t the only Democrat who brought Stefano into the Legislature as an example of how prisoners can be reformed. Stefano has been the star witness for other Democrats, such as Sen. Loki Tobin.
In 2024, Fairbanks Sen. Scott Kawasaki held a hearing featuring Sen. Tobin speaking about her bill to reform the Alaska Parole Board and make it easier for violent offenders to be released.
Tobin brought with her the ACLU, and arranged for two paroled violent offenders to testify. One of those offenders was Stefano.
Start watching the Senate Justice Committee hearing at minute 47, when Stefano testified by phone.
Stefano is still technically on parole, while he is being treated for gunshot wounds delivered by the responding Anchorage Police officer, a cop who Police Chief Sean Case said acted heroically to save another life. He has an Eagle River address, which means that his senator is Sen. Kelly Merrick, who has put the Democrats in power in the Senate by joining their coalition.
