Father of slain Palmer teen, father of 1 accused killer nearly come to blows after court hearing

PALMER — The fathers of a popular 16-year-old slain last year and one of the teens accused of killing him almost got into a fight at the Palmer courthouse on Tuesday.

David Grunwald was pistol-whipped in Palmer and then shot in November 2016. His body was found near the Knik River in early December after an extensive search. Alaska State Troopers arrested four teens in connection with the killing, plus another for evidence tampering.

[Documents shed new light on slain Palmer teen's final moments]

Tuesday's altercation took place at the end of an otherwise uneventful Palmer Superior Court hearing for three murder defendants.

As officers escorted out the trio, the father of 17-year-old Bradley Renfro shouted, "Love you, Brad!" from his seat nearby at the end of the gallery's front row.

"We love David, too," said Grunwald's mother, Edie, sitting in middle of the same row.

Ben Grunwald, his father, could be heard saying something about "… taken out and hung."

"Pound for a pound of flesh," said Renfro's father, Russell Renfro, as the conversation got increasingly agitated and about a dozen people in the courtroom looked on.

"If I had my way, it would already be done," Ben Grunwald responded.

The two men exchanged expletives. Then as everyone filed out of the courtroom into a hallway, Grunwald and Renfro shouted at each other and faced off.

"I don't give a s–t about your son," Grunwald yelled to Renfro. "Your son killed my son."

Renfro shouted that his son "had nothing to do with it" and the killing was all Erick Almandinger's idea.

That's when a retired police officer stepped between them, briefly laid a hand on one and then the other, and shoved Renfro back several times, telling him to leave. He did. Grunwald moved off.

The officer was Donna Anthony, who retired as a Palmer police investigator and spent six years on a Mat-Su drug unit. She now owns a firearms and self-defense training business near Palmer and attends hearings with the Grunwalds.

Anthony didn't want the men to fight, she said after the altercation ended. "I kept pushing."

Almandinger, 17, is one of the other teens accused of the crime.

[Calling fair trial 'unlikely' in Palmer, attorney wants new venue for Grunwald murder]

The pistol-whipping took place in a camper trailer behind the home Almandinger shared with his father and grandmother. He told investigators he didn't participate in the beating or fire the fatal shot. But the other teens charged with Renfro, 17-year-old Dominic Johnson and 20-year-old Austin Barrett, say he did.

Almandinger is being tried on his own, with his trial currently expected to start in mid-May.

Johnson is also expected to get his own trial, attorneys said Tuesday.

The outburst wasn't the first involving Bradley Renfro during the case. A year ago, during a tense December hearing that was the first time the Grunwalds saw their son's accused killers in court, Bradley Renfro said, "What are you gonna do? Do something," as he left the courtroom.

The Grunwalds and their supporters thought Renfro was challenging Ben Grunwald. Renfro's father later said his son was challenging him, Russell Renfro.