ANCHORAGE — Fairbanks prosecutors have filed felony coercion and criminal mischief charges against a man suspected of harassing a former co-worker, slashing her boyfriend’s tires and threatening to burn down the man’s house.
Peyton Jeff Turner, 30, of North Pole, also was charged Monday with three counts of misdemeanor stalking. He remained jailed Tuesday at Fairbanks Correctional Center.
Online court records were not immediately available to determine whether Turner has an attorney. The arrest was first reported by the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.
An affidavit filed by Alaska State Trooper James Thomas said Turner pursued and made unwanted sexual advances toward a woman he had worked with at a North Pole restaurant.
When the woman rebuffed his advances, Turner began following a man with whom she once lived around North Pole. The woman quit her job and moved to Fairbanks to avoid Turner, she told Trooper Thomas.
Her current boyfriend on Dec. 30 stumbled across Craigslist postings claiming the woman was willing to meet with other men. The posting referenced the boyfriend’s home and phone number.
The boyfriend last week received a Facebook message ordering him to let Turner talk to the woman.
About 2:30 a.m. Jan. 4, someone threw a hard object through the boyfriend’s upstairs window. He walked out of his house later that morning to find engine parts on his car damaged.
After a nearly $300 repair, the car came back Friday. That night, a towing company showed up after someone called saying the car’s tires had been slashed. The boyfriend discovered his $700 tires had been destroyed.
Throughout last week, the woman received Instagram messages with vulgar or threatening account names indicating harassment would continue until she spent a night with Turner.
On Thursday, the woman, her boyfriend, her boyfriend’s father and her ex-boyfriend filed stalking orders against Peyton and provided Thomas with witness statements.
Messages to the woman turned more ominous Saturday. One said, “Accidents happen every day. Electrical fires, furnace is catching on fire, gas leaks.”
Thomas on Saturday night obtained a warrant authorizing electronic monitoring and recording and listened to a phone conversation between the woman and Turner.
Turner reportedly told the woman, “I can’t control myself because I have no emotional feelings. I am darkness.”
According to Thomas, Turner acknowledged that he had damaged the car and the window. When she asked him to leave her alone, he told her he would if she spent one night with him.
She declined. She also told Turner to stop the Instagram messages, to which Turner replied, “Then I’m going to go over and burn his house down. Boiler rooms catch on fire, don’t they? I bet his boiler room is in the back were the Christmas tree is at.”
