Man sentenced to 99 years in prison for murder of 10-year-old Quinhagak girl

A 20-year-old Quinhagak man was sentenced Monday to spend 99 years in prison for the 2020 murder of a 10-year-old girl in the Western Alaska village.

Jordan Mark pleaded guilty in December to a charge of first-degree murder for Ida “Girlie” Aguchak’s death. He also admitted to kidnapping and sexually assaulting the girl, according to the Alaska Department of Law.

Aguchak’s death shook the village of Quinhagak, home to roughly 700 people and located about 70 miles southwest of Bethel. The girl was missing for about a day before volunteer searchers discovered her body.

Mark apologized during a sentencing hearing Monday at the Bethel courthouse and asked for a 45-year sentence, the Department of Law said. “There is no excuse for what I’ve done. I hope you see past that and see who I actually am. I’m a human being. I made a terrible mistake.”

Aguchak’s family also spoke during the hearing, asking for the 99-year maximum sentence, state prosecutors said. They described her as the baby of the family who wanted to be a nurse. Her mother told the court that Aguchak’s death “broke our family and our community as well as his own family. She was taken too soon. We are still broken from this.”

Fairbanks Superior Court Judge Michael MacDonald sentenced Mark to spend 99 years in prison, saying his actions demonstrated “a depravity of heart and derangement of mind.”