Anchorage police arrest new suspect in 2022 homicide after prosecutors say wrong man charged

Anchorage police arrested a 20-year-old man last week on murder charges linked to a 2022 killing after state prosecutors said they arrested the wrong man based on false testimony from two witnesses.

Two women, one of them the new suspect’s girlfriend, framed a relative for the shooting after he was arrested and jailed on unrelated charges a few days later, prosecutors said this week.

The case began in November 2022 when 23-year-old Brad Robert was fatally shot at a Spenard mobile home park after he heard a disturbance involving two women and a man and was shot after going to outside to help.

Police arrested Anthony Tinker III in the killing about two weeks later.

A spokeswoman for the Alaska Department of Law on Thursday confirmed that the wrong person was charged in the homicide. Prosecutors dismissed murder charges against Tinker last week. He remains jailed on unrelated charges.

Another man, 20-year-old Vincent Sandifer, was indicted earlier this month on murder charges associated with Robert’s killing.

Two other people, 43-year-old Jessica Elaine Lowe and 24-year-old Kathleen Juliette Lowe, face felony perjury charges accusing them of falsely testifying under oath that Tinker was the person who shot Robert, according to an indictment filed July 9 against them and Sandifer.

Sandifer is Kathy Lowe’s boyfriend, according to Assistant District Attorney Paul Miovas, who is prosecuting the case. Jessica Lowe is her mother.

The women conspired with Sandifer to give him an alibi — they said he wasn’t even home at the time — and say it was Tinker who killed Robert, Miovas said during a court hearing Monday. Tinker is Jessica Lowe’s brother and Kathy Lowe’s uncle and was staying with them.

“Mr. Tinker was an easy person to say he was the shooter in this case,” he said, adding Tinker had undergone a psychotic episode in the days following the shooting and was arrested in a number of serious felony crimes.

The night of the shooting, Sandifer was in the neighborhood with an “AR-style” rifle after getting in an argument with Kathy Lowe, who left to bring him back as her mother followed, Miovas said during an arraignment hearing Monday. Robert heard the disturbance, thought Kathy Lowe was in danger, and tried to pull her away from the others, according to several accounts.

Sandifer fired seven shots at close range, killing Robert, Miovas said. The women fled back to their residence.

Robert’s girlfriend, Maryann Schneider, said this week that she was home with him the night of the shooting but only saw silhouettes of the people outside. She saw the entire encounter.

One of the women was hanging on the arm of the other, pleading to go home, Schneider said in an interview. “Brad went out there to separate the one in distress from the rest and get her to safety the best he could.”

Schneider said she was initially disappointed when Miovas called to tell her about the upheaval in the charges.

“I was definitely frustrated when they broke the news,” she said. “I was like, ‘OK, so how do you know you have the right one this time?’”

But, Schneider said, she’s been impressed with the prosecution team and their thoroughness. She said the person who shot her boyfriend appeared to show no remorse that night.

A public defender representing Tinker in his ongoing case did not respond to calls for comment Thursday.

The two women now identified as Jessica and Kathy Lowe told police back in November 2022 that Tinker was acting erratically before the shooting and ran from their home, so they followed him and saw him shoot Robert, according to a summary of police reports filed with charges.

Tinker, 30, was jailed in mid-November 2022 on numerous felony charges stemming from a crime spree several days after the shooting occurred. He appeared in court on the murder charges about two weeks later.

Tinker was still in custody at the Cook Inlet Pretrial Facility on those other charges as of Thursday, according to a Department of Corrections spokeswoman.

The other charges stemmed from what police described as a series of aggressive acts involving Tinker three days after the shooting. Officers were called to an address on Minnesota Drive for what police said at the time was a report that Tinker was suffering some kind of ”mental health episode.”

He was taken to a hospital for psychiatric care and released with a taxi voucher, they said. He stole the cab, crashed it, and then stole another car in an armed carjacking, police said. Tinker then locked himself in an apartment with the gun and was apprehended after a several hourslong standoff with police on multiple charges including felony robbery, burglary and vehicle theft, they said.

Tinker was evaluated and found mentally competent to stand trial, according to a state courts database.

Police issued an alert last week about a SWAT callout on West Dimond Boulevard involving Sandifer that did not mention Tinker. It also didn’t provide any new information about the role Sandifer allegedly played in Robert’s death.

Police said they learned of Sandifer’s location on July 11 and arrested him that evening. An update the next day described him as a “second suspect” in the November 2022 homicide. Sandifer was jailed at the Anchorage Correctional Complex on a warrant on charges of first- and second-degree murder, they said.

Police department spokeswoman Renee Oistad declined to answer questions about what information led detectives to Sandifer, saying the investigation was “ongoing and open” and has not been adjudicated by the courts. Witness statements initially led police to Tinker, Oistad said.

Sandifer entered a not-guilty plea at an arraignment hearing Monday and remained jailed at the Anchorage Correctional Complex on Thursday in lieu of $500,000 bail.