Prosecutor: Return Banished Teens Says Tlingits Are Breaking Law By Possessing Firearms, Living On Federal Land

Two Tlingit teenagers who have been banished to an isolated island in southeastern Alaska are violating the conditions of their punishment by possessing firearms and living on federal land, according to a motion filed by the Snohomish County prosecutor’s office.

Thursday’s motion, which seeks the immediate return of the teens to Snohomish County, claims that the makeshift cabins where Adrian Guthrie and Simon Roberts live are on U.S. Forest Service land. The teens are also armed with hunting rifles, given to them at the start of the banishment.

Being a felon in possession of a weapon and living illegally on federal land are both crimes punishable by fines and prison sentences. Deputy Prosecutor Seth Fine, in the motion, claims the Snohomish County judge’s unusual release that allowed the youths to be banished requires that they break no laws.

The motion includes a litany of other alleged problems with the youths’ banishment, claims that Guthrie and Roberts are apparently caught in an escalating battle between Tlingit families, and says that each has been threatened by other tribal members. Guthrie also apparently ran critically short of supplies during the winter.

But Byron Skinna, a member of the tribal court that banished the teens, disputed the allegations. He said Thursday that he had returned on Monday from visiting Guthrie and Roberts and that both were fine.

“(The banishment) is working. The boys have really changed their attitudes,” Skinna said.

Roberts and Guthrie, both 17 at the time, were convicted last year of the August 1993 assault and robbery of pizza deliveryman Tim Whittlesey, who suffered debilitating injuries in the attack.

At their sentencing hearing last August, Snohomish County Superior Court James Allendoerfer agreed to delay their sentencing until March 1996 to allow the teens to participate in what a Tlingit tribal court claimed was traditional rehabilitation. The Tlingit teenagers were subsequently banished for one year to separate locations on an isolated island to contemplate their crime.

But prosecutors have consistently opposed the judge’s delay in sentencing and have sought to have it overturned.

Included in Fine’s motion was a report filed by two Forest Service law-enforcement officers who encountered the banished teenagers. The report claims Guthrie told them earlier this month that he was short on food. He also said he “almost froze during January when his fuel wood ran out.”

Both young men are also apparently worried about threats that have been made by other Tlingit families who are unhappy with the situation.

“Roberts seemed very nervous and on edge. … (He) expressed fears that other Tlingits might seek to do him bodily harm, that they might seek to drown him,” the report says.

Guthrie told the officers that people on a fishing boat shouted threats and told him to leave his cabin. Guthrie said he was afraid he was caught “in the middle of a fight between families.”

Skinna said both Native Americans and non-Native Americans who oppose the banishment have made threats against the teenagers from the beginning. Guthrie and Roberts, both now 18, told Skinna about the boat’s visits, but neither was especially concerned for his safety.

On March 15, two Forest Service officers contacted the teenagers and documented their illegal presence on federal land, according to the report. The two officers also noted that both men have weapons. Roberts brandished a Winchester lever-action rifle and “shouted a challenge” when the officers approached.

“These actions have created a very dangerous situation. Both defendants have expressed fears that they are in danger from people who know their locations,” Fine wrote in the motion.