Trial in kidnapping, sexual assault case delayed

  • By DAN BALMER
  • Sunday, January 11, 2015 11:21pm
  • News

Trial for a Soldotna man facing charges of sexual assault of two women in two separate 2013 home invasions has been delayed until April while the defense awaits more audio recordings for the case.

Shane Heiman, 39, who worked as a handyman before his incarceration, returned to Kenai Superior Court for his seventh trial call Wednesday wearing a yellow jumpsuit. His trial would have started today but public defender Josh Cooley requested a 60-day continuance. Cooley said he is waiting on transcripts for all of the audio recordings that were made in connection with the case and declined to comment further.

Superior Court Judge Charles Huguelet set Heiman’s trial for the week of April 6. When Huguelet asked the defendant if he would waive his right for speedy trial once again, Heiman paused and sighed before he said yes.

ADVERTISEMENT
0 seconds of 0 secondsVolume 0%
Press shift question mark to access a list of keyboard shortcuts
00:00
00:00
00:00
 

Heiman has been in custody since his Dec. 13, 2013 arrest after Soldotna police and Alaska State Troopers found enough evidence to link him to a report of a burglary, assault and attempted rape of a 23-year-old woman at a Soldotna residence earlier that night.

In that incident, troopers allege Heiman broke into a woman’s cabin on Tobacco Lane after he shut off power to the cabin. The 23-year-old woman woke up to find Heiman standing over her with a hunting knife and a headlamp. The woman was able to escape to a nearby relative’s house. The victim told police she recognized her attacker as Heiman, from when he worked on the house a few months earlier, according to court documents.

A month earlier on Nov. 11, 2013, troopers allege Heiman kidnapped an 18-year-old woman from her Soldotna apartment and raped her repeatedly. The woman told police Heiman entered her apartment around 4 a.m. and tied her up at knifepoint. She reported he had a headlamp in his hands and he put a fast food bag over her head. The woman was able to escape Heiman’s truck after he stopped to use the bathroom. She ran down the Sterling Highway in her underwear in the early morning from Ski Hill Road to Safeway, according to a police affidavit.

Heiman is currently housed at Wildwood Pretrial Facility on eight felony charges between the two incidents, including two counts of first-degree sexual assault, kidnapping, two counts of first-degree burglary, second-degree sexual assault, and two counts of third-degree assault. Heiman is also charged with resisting arrest.

Last July, Cooley filed a motion to sever charges of the two incidents. Kenai assistant district attorney Kelly Lawson opposed that motion and Huguelet rejected the motion last August.

The two incidents were linked through DNA testing after a Sexual Assault Response Team at Central Peninsula Hospital examined the 18-year-old and results matched with Heiman’s DNA.

Last December Huguelet denied a motion filed by Cooley to suppress statements Heiman made prior to his arrest. Cooley claimed in his argument, based on audio and video from Soldotna police and troopers, that police pulled him over with the intent to arrest him and he was interrogated before he was given a Miranda warning.

“This isn’t Mr. Heiman driving down the road with a taillight out,” Cooley said in an evidentiary hearing last November. “They knew they were going to arrest this guy. Nothing about this was a routine traffic stop.”

According to court documents, Huguelet ruled the facts show custodial interrogation did not begin until Heiman was placed in handcuffs.

Huguelet said there was reasonable cause for an investigative stop and a suspect is not entitled to a Miranda warning until the stop turns into a custodial interrogation.

The two 2013 incidents are similar to allegations in 2008 when Heiman was convicted for criminal trespass of a Soldotna home.

In that case, Heiman was convicted of illegally entering a home on Birch Street around 2:30 a.m. when a then 23-year-old woman woke to find Heiman sitting at the end of her bed. According to police, she “freaked out” and woke up her parents. Her father confronted the intruder, which forced him out of the house and into the woods.

Heiman was convicted on three misdemeanor charges of criminal trespass, harassment and DUI on Jan. 13, 2009 and Kenai Superior Court Judge Anna Moran sentenced Heiman to 180 days in jail with 160 days suspended. Four other misdemeanor charges were dismissed.

In a February 2014 bail hearing, Lawson described the cases as a “pattern of behavior.”

“His conduct is similar to the 2008 incident,” Lawson said. “Now here he is in 2013 committing similar if not more perfected types of crimes. I’m concerned about putting him back on the street.”

Heiman’s next court date is a trial call on April 1 in Kenai.

Reach Dan Balmer at daniel.balmer@peninsulaclarion.com.

More in News

tease
‘All the kids are grand champions’

Kenai Peninsula 4-H shows off at Agriculture Expo

Soldotna City Council member Jordan Chilson and Soldotna Mayor Paul Whitney grill hot dogs at the Progress Days Block Party at Parker Park in Soldotna, Alaska, on Saturday, July 26, 2025. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Progress Days block party keeps celebration going

Vendors, food trucks, carnival games and contests entertained hundreds

Children take candy from a resident of Heritage Place during the 68th Annual Soldotna Progress Days Parade in Soldotna, Alaska, on Saturday, July 26, 2025. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
‘It feels so hometown’

68th Annual Soldotna Progress Days parade brings festivity to city streets

Kachemak Bay is seen from the Homer Spit in March 2019. (Homer News file photo)
Toxin associated with amnesic shellfish poisoning not detected in Kachemak Bay mussels

The test result does not indicate whether the toxin is present in other species in the food web.

Superintendent Clayton Holland speaks during a meeting of the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District Board of Education in Soldotna, Alaska, on Monday, July 7, 2025. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Federal education funding to be released after monthlong delay

The missing funds could have led to further cuts to programming and staff on top of deep cuts made by the KPBSD Board of Education this year.

An angler holds up a dolly varden for a photograph on Wednesday, July 16. (Photo courtesy of Koby Etzwiler)
Anchor River opens up to Dollies, non-King salmon fishing

Steelhead and rainbow trout are still off limits and should not be removed from the water.

A photo provided by NTSB shows a single-engine Piper PA-18-150 Super Cub, that crashed shortly after takeoff in a mountainous area of southwestern Alaska, Sept. 12, 2023. The plane was weighed down by too much moose meat and faced drag from a set of antlers mounted on its right wing strut, federal investigators said on Tuesday.
Crash that killed husband of former congresswoman was overloaded with moose meat and antlers, NTSB says

The plane, a single-engine Piper PA-18-150 Super Cub, crashed shortly after takeoff in a mountainous area of southwestern Alaska on Sept. 12, 2023.

Armor rock from Sand Point is offloaded from a barge in the Kenai River in Kenai, Alaska, part of ongoing construction efforts for the Kenai River Bluff Stabilization Project on Wednesday, July 23, 2025. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Work continues on Kenai Bluff stabilization project

The wall has already taken shape over a broad swath of the affected area.

An aerial photo over Grewingk Glacier and Glacier Spit from May 2021 shows a mesodinium rubrum bloom to the left as contrasted with the normal ocean water of Kachemak Bay near Homer. (Photo courtesy of Stephanie Greer/Beryl Air)
KBNERR warns of potential harmful algal bloom in Kachemak Bay

Pseudo-nitzchia has been detected at bloom levels in Kachemak Bay since July 4.

Most Read

You're browsing in private mode.
Please sign in or subscribe to continue reading articles in this mode.

Peninsula Clarion relies on subscription revenue to provide local content for our readers.

Subscribe

Already a subscriber? Please sign in