An Anchorage judge has handed down a quarter-century sentence to a man arrested in a pair of armed robberies last year -- who had escaped a halfway house after being convicted of committing two more armed robberies two years ago.
Anchorage District Attorney Clint Campion said in a Wednesday statement that Siaosi Sila, 22, was sentenced to 26 years in prison Friday by Superior Court Judge Jack Smith.
"Sila had previously pled to three counts of robbery in the first degree, one count of burglary in the first degree, one count of arson in the second degree, one count of misconduct involving weapons in the third degree, one count of escape in the fourth degree, and one count of violating conditions of release," Campion wrote.
Sila, who played football for West High School in 2009, was on probation for a felony burglary conviction in May 2013 when he led a foot chase onto barely frozen Cheney Lake in Midtown. Officers called medics in case Sila fell through the thin ice -- then waited for him to carefully make his way ashore and surrender, roughly 20 minutes later.
During the first string of robberies on Nov. 30, 2013, Sila was arrested with three other men -- 23-year-old Miracle Tulimasealii, 18-year-old Tusa Tanuvasa and 22-year-old Lonne Reed Jr. -- after two robberies within two hours at a Hampton Inn on Credit Union Drive and a Chevron gas station on West Dimond Boulevard. Employees at both locations said three armed men entered and demanded money, with one trying to open an ATM at the Chevron using shotgun blasts.
Campion said Sila, who had faced a total of 29 felony charges in the 2013 robberies, had been awaiting trial when he escaped an Anchorage halfway house in April 2015. Within hours of his escape, Campion said, Sila robbed the Money Mart payday-loan store at 6311 DeBarr Road.
About two weeks later, on April 16?, Sila and another man, 22-year-old Solomon Travita, were arrested after an armed robbery at the Smoke King store in Mountain View. At the time of his 2015 arrest, Campion said, Sila told police that he owed about $20,000 related to his recent use of methamphetamines.
"He had a significant drug debt that he had incurred upon his release," Campion said. "He was trying to pay some money back to some very bad people."
Campion said the arson charge Sila pleaded guilty to was linked to an attempt to destroy a Mountain View pawnshop after Sila had stolen a ring from an older man.
"(The man) was beaten in his driveway but (the ring) was important to him, so he had put a notice out to pawnshops where he thought the ring might appear," Campion said. "In retaliation, Sila and a friend tried to burn that pawnshop down."
Negotiations for Sila's plea deal, Campion said, began soon after he was arrested in the 2015 robberies, with the formal change of plea occurring last fall.
Prosecutors in the case who attended Sila's sentencing hearing told Campion that Sila didn't try to explain his actions in court Friday.
"He was very emotional at the sentencing hearing," Campion said. "He said more than one time that he was seeking forgiveness for his conduct."
Smith, who sentenced Sila to a total of 38 years with 12 years suspended, told him in court that his actions constituted a "rash of extremely violent criminal activity."
"Judge Smith found that isolation was the primary factor for the sentence because he believed that Sila posed an extreme danger to the community," Campion wrote in Wednesday's statement. "Judge Smith commented on the 'incredible audacity' to commit additional armed robberies while facing other robbery charges."
After his release, Sila will also spend five years on probation.