Man sentenced to 99 years for murder of his mother in her Nikiski home
Published 4:30 am Tuesday, May 26, 2026
A man has been sentenced to 99 years in prison for the September 2022 murder of his mother in her Nikiski home.
River John George Aspelund, 24, was given no eligibility for parole during his May 21 sentencing by Kenai Superior Court Judge Lance Joanis.
Jeryl Ann Bates was discovered in her home with multiple gunshots to the back of her head as well as two post-mortem gunshots wounds to her chest.
“Additionally, Ms. Bates had extensive injuries caused by a knife, including multiple post-mortem stab wounds to her abdomen and neck,” according to a release from the Alaska Department of Law. “The evidence showed substantial attempts to cover up the murder, including multiple empty bleach bottles and other cleaners.”
A Kenai jury found Aspelund guilty of murder in the first degree, murder in the second degree, manslaughter, and tampering with physical evidence following a trial in August 2025.
Substantial evidence presented at trial and during sentencing supported that the killing was premeditated. Over the two years preceding the murder, Aspelund repeatedly made statements and engaged in conduct expressing an intent to kill, including that he wanted to “Kill everyone. Kill myself” and that he wanted “to kill people, feel their blood, and see the life go out of them.”
The evidence at trial showed that, after receiving a family member’s request for a welfare check on Jeryl Ann Bates at her Nikiski residence, Alaska State Troopers responded to the residence and discovered Bates’ severely injured body covered by a blanket inside the residence, with significant blood staining throughout the area. Aspelund was found lying on a bed inside his mother’s residence.
The handgun and knife used in the murder were discovered beneath the driver’s seat of a vehicle parked outside the residence. Video footage showed the defendant driving the vehicle and exiting and re-entering it after the murder and approximately one hour before Troopers arrived and discovered Bates. Investigators also located Aspelund’s bloody fingerprints on the vehicle door, along with multiple bloody shoeprints at the scene matching the shoes he was seen wearing in the video footage. The contents of Bates’ purse were scattered near her body, and bank cards bearing her name were recovered from the pants Aspelund was wearing in the footage.
The court also heard evidence of the defendant’s consistent refusal to take mental health medication and his persistent use of controlled substances. Judge Joanis noted these facts in finding the defendant a worst offender warranting the maximum sentence of 99 years that could be imposed, and in finding that it was necessary to restrict Aspelund’s eligibility for discretionary parole considering his dangerousness and lack of rehabilitative prospects.
At sentencing, the convictions for murder in the second degree and manslaughter merged into the murder in the first-degree conviction for which the court issued the single sentence of 99 years to serve. The judge also imposed a sentence of one year of prison for the tampering with physical evidence conviction but imposed that sentence concurrent with the murder in the first-degree sentence.
