A Juneau grand jury indicted the 38-year-old man who was at the center of a police search in Switzer Village Mobile Park earlier this month.
Laron Carlton Graham, 38, was charged with first-degree vehicle theft, third-degree assault and second-degree robbery. He is also facing a misdemeanor criminal trespass charge.
Charging court documents indicate Graham assaulted a woman whom he had been romantically involved with, took her cellphone and stole a car from her residence March 17.
Police apprehended Graham near Western Auto Marine around 11 p.m. that same day, according to a police complaint. He is being held at Lemon Creek Correctional Center in lieu of $35,000 bond.
The incident drew the attention of the public when Juneau Police Department plain-clothes detectives were searching for Graham that day in the trailer park, with rifles in hand. The officers were identified as “gunmen” on Juneau Facebook groups, raising false alarm of an active shooter situation before JPD released a statement clearing up any confusion.
According to a police complaint filed in court, Graham visited the woman the morning of March 17 at her residence in the Lemon Creek area, despite a trespass notice prohibiting him from being there. The doors to her house were locked, but without her knowing, one of her kids unlocked the door and let him in. Graham then slapped the woman in the face several times while she held her 1-year-old child, and threatened to throw her out of the top-floor apartment window if she did not give him access to her cell phone, the police complaint alleges.
The woman fled to the apartment’s manager’s office where the manager alerted JPD.
The car belonged to someone who lent it to the woman, and it was found the night of March 17 on another street in the same Lemon Creek neighborhood. The car’s owner requested police press charges for vehicle theft.
When questioned by police, Graham stated that the disturbance was “regarding his girlfriend cheating on him, but (Graham) denied any further involvement and spoke non-sensically the rest of the interview,” JPD Detective Matthew DuBois wrote in the complaint.
Graham made his first court appearance March 18 and was removed from the courtroom by order of Judge Keith Levy for disrupting court proceedings by talking out of turn and interrupting the attorneys. During that hearing, Assistant District Attorney Angie Kemp argued that Graham was a “community safety concern,” citing his criminal record across multiple states. Kemp told the Empire after the hearing that Graham has a non-extraditable warrant out for his arrest in Georgia where he faces felony drug and assault charges.
He will likely next appear in court for an arraignment this week, although a date for the proceeding was not immediately available Friday.
For the charges he faces in Juneau, if convicted, Graham is looking at up to 10 years in prison for the robbery charge and up to five years in prison for the assault and vehicle theft charges.
The Juneau grand jury also issued the following indictments on Friday:
• Jeffery L. Oleman, 53, was indicted for a third-degree assault. The offense is a class C felony punishable by up to five years in prison and/or a $50,000 fine.
Oleman allegedly grabbed and pinned down his ex-girlfriend Jan. 22 at her neighbor’s residence. Oleman had allegedly harassed the woman for some time before the incident, according to an affidavit filed by Assistant District Attorney Kemp. The woman sustained scratches and bruises on her hands and wrists, according to a police complaint.
• Darin Lee Jones, 48, was indicted for the misconduct of a controlled substance, methamphetamine, on Jan 22. The fourth-degree offense is a C felony.
• Contact reporter Paula Ann Solis at 523-2272 or paula.solis@juneauempire.com.
