The trial of Tallon Westlake begins Tuesday morning. Westlake was indicted in the 2022 murder of his father, former Rep. Dean Westlake.
Dean Westlake, of Kiana and Kotzebue, was killed at a residence on Rovenna Street in Anchorage on Aug. 20, 2022. He had gone to the residence owned by his girlfriend, where his son was staying. He had planned to evict Tallon, but instead a fight ensued, and Dean Westlake was “pummeled,” according to the court record.
Tallon Westlake is now 38 and being held in Cook Inlet Pretrial Facility in Anchorage.
He was indicted by a grand jury on multiple counts in connection with the death, including first- and second-degree murder because he showed “extreme indifference” to his father’s life when he allegedly beat him to death.
Officers said when they arrived at the apartment, there were blood marks on hallway walls, kitchen cabinets, on Dean Westlake’s hands and feet, and on Tallon Westlake’s clothes. There was also a strong smell of bleach and evidence, including a mop, of an apparent attempt to clean the floor of blood. A bloody towel was found in the car outside, which belonged to Tallon.
Dean Westlake, age 62 at the time of his death, was elected in 2016 and resigned from the Legislature in 2017, after women in the Capitol accused him of sexual harassment; it was at the height of the #metoo movement, a time during which women were making lots of public accusations against men. It later became public that he had fathered a child with a 16-year-old girl in 1988, when he was 28 years old.
He was the Democrats’ pick to replace Barrow’s Rep. Ben Nageak, who chose to caucus with Republicans, who were in the majority.
The trial is scheduled for the courtroom of Judge Michael Wolverton at 8:30 am. Earlier this month, Tallon Westlake’s lawyers requested that the defendant be able to cover his facial tattoos during the trial or to “Preclude Evidence, Comment, or Reference to Mr. Westlake’s Tattoos,” according to the court record.
