After deliberating until late Friday evening, a trial jury found a man guilty of multiple charges stemming from a fatal 2019 stabbing downtown.
Fenton L. Jacobs, 42, was found guilty of second-degree murder and several lesser charges, including mansalughter, harassment and two counts of third-degree assault. Jacobs was found not guilty of first-degree murder. A count of resisting arrest was dismissed.
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The case, which began in mid-May, hinged on whether Jacobs was acting in self-defense or as the aggressor. The defense, led by public defender Nicholas Ambrose, posited that the victim in the case, 47-year-old William Scott Campbell, had repeatedly harassed Jacobs and the other men Jacobs was hanging out with on South Franklin Street.
Ambrose also said that the investigation carried out by the Juneau Police Department may have been incomplete, with police failing to rapidly secure the early-morning crime scene, and not looking for a weapon that may have been wielded by Campbell before becoming lost during the altercation.
The prosecution, led by prosecutor Jessalyn Gillum and Katherine Lybrand, argued that Jacbos had come downtown looking for a fight that evening, citing an early incident in the Foodland IGA parking lot in which Jacobs allegedly threatened some bystanders before he came downtown and encountered Campbell and his wife, Monica.
Lawyers finished their closing statements on Friday morning before the jury retired to deliberate. Jurors convened and delivered a verdict around 5 p.m. on Friday and were initially dismissed before a technical issue in the proceedings caused the court to reconvene jurrors, delivering the final verdict around 9 p.m. that night, according to an email from court case manager Annissa Coleman.
In Alaska, second-degree murder carries a maximum possible sentence of 99 years. Jacobs’ sentencing is scheduled for late November.
Judge Amy Mead oversaw the case.
• Contact reporter Michael S. Lockett at (757) 621-1197 or mlockett@juneauempire.com.
