50-year-old Ruben Fernandez was sentenced to serve 20 years for one conviction of Murder in the Second Degree for the 1995 murder of 18-year-old David Burdette in Anchorage.
Fernandez pleaded guilty to the charge on Aug. 6, 2024, as part of a plea agreement with the State.
On May 20, 1995, Fernandez shot Mr. Burdette as he was walking away from a verbal argument and then shot him again after he fell. Fernandez continued to shoot out the window of a vehicle as he fled the scene.
The shooting took place in an area known as “The Strip,” which was a popular outdoor hangout near Northern Lights and C Street in the 1990s.
Fernandez was indicted on one count of Murder in the First Degree on Aug. 11, 1995.
After the shooting, Fernandez, a United States citizen, fled to the Dominican Republic, where he lived illegally under aliases for nearly 30 years.
In 2022, the U.S. Marshals Service located him, and with the cooperation of the Anchorage Police Department, he was extradited to the United States to face the charges.
APD Detective Joseph Hoffbeck and APD Officer John Daily worked on the initial investigation in 1995.
Daily conducted an additional investigation in 2022, including traveling to return Fernandez to Alaska after his arrest. Between 1995 and 2022, Detective Dave Cordie and other APD officers worked to locate Fernandez, with assistance from the FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service.
In his sentencing remarks, Superior Court Judge Jack McKenna prioritized the seriousness and circumstances of the crime, the harm to the victim, his family, the community, and the defendant’s rehabilitative potential.
Assistant Attorney General Erin McCarthy of the Office of Special Prosecutions prosecuted the case.
