Anchorage couple plead guilty to arson at Spenard apartment that killed three and injured 16

An Anchorage man and woman pleaded guilty Thursday to manslaughter and assault for setting fire to an Anchorage apartment complex in February 2017.

The fire quickly spread throughout the building, eventually killing three women, injuring 16 other people and forcing dozens of residents to flee.

Carleigh West and Andrew Eknaty, now both 35, set fire to a Chevrolet Malibu to hide evidence that they had been driving drunk and evading police earlier in the night. That’s according to a statement filed this week by prosecutor Patrick McKay, which details what the state considers to be the facts of the case. The fire quickly spread through the 30-unit complex, leaving many residents no choice but to jump out of second- or third-story windows to escape.

West and Eknaty pleaded guilty Thursday to charges of manslaughter, first-degree assault and negligent burning. West, who changed her name from Carleigh Fox in 2022, also pleaded guilty to driving under the influence. The pair were originally charged with 38 counts, including murder and arson. All other charges would be dismissed as part of the plea agreement.

The agreement calls for each of them to serve 24 years in prison, lawyers said at Thursday’s hearing.

At least one person plans to object to the agreement and urge the judge not to accept the deal, an attorney with the state Office of Victims’ Rights said Thursday when she appeared by telephone for the hearing. McKay said he has received mixed feedback from victims about the agreement.

On Valentine’s Day in 2017, Eknaty stole a bottle of alcohol from a Brown Jug store while West waited in the car, the statement of facts states. Around 1:30 a.m. on Feb. 15, police at the University of Alaska Anchorage campus saw West encounter a snow bank and then flee the area, the statement said. According to prosecutors, the Chevy Malibu’s license plate fell off at the scene of the accident.

West and Eknaty decided to report the vehicle stolen, the statement said. Eknaty then drove it to the Royal Suites Lodge around 2:10 a.m. and parked it under the west carport, they said.

They then set a fire in the passenger compartment of the car and were seen on surveillance footage walking toward the apartments, the statement said. About two minutes later, Eknaty could be seen running back to the vehicle before confronting West and throwing snow on the car, the statement said.

At that time, the couple fled the scene of the accident without informing anyone about the fire, it was said. The first emergency call came in about eight minutes later, when the fire had already spread to the west end of the apartments, the statement said.

At the scene of the accident, first responders placed great emphasis on rescuing those trapped in the building and providing first aid to those injured either from smoke inhalation, burns or from jumping from the burning building, officials said at the time.

Andrew Engelking broke his leg after jumping from the third floor of the building, then stood up and caught his 2- and 10-year-old children as they exited the building through the window, he said in interviews after the fire. He broke his pregnant wife’s fall after she jumped from the building, but she still broke her spine and underwent an immediate cesarean section on the day of the fire to deliver their daughter two months early, he said.

(Previous reporting: ‘No Choice’: Father Catches Children Jumping From Fire, But Pregnant Woman Lands Hard)

Teuaililo Nua, a 38-year-old mother of two, jumped out the window behind her daughters but was unconscious when she hit the ground, her husband told reporters in the days after the fire. She died at the scene of the accident.

First responders also found 63-year-old Vivian Hall dead in a second-floor apartment. She was bedridden, a caregiver told reporters.

Hall’s roommate, 70-year-old Laura Kramer, died a few days later in a Seattle hospital from injuries sustained in the fire.

Immediately afterwards, displaced residents sought refuge at the recreation center in Spenard.

West and Eknaty blamed it on an engine fire and told investigators they did not intentionally set the fire, according to court documents filed in the case. But after a special investigation lasting more than a year, officials determined that the fire had started in the passenger compartment and not the engine, McKay’s statement said.

Thursday’s change in plea hearing came more than seven years after the fatal fire and nearly six years after West and Eknaty were charged. McKay said the delays were due to the complexity of the case and the pandemic.

West and Eknaty are scheduled to be sentenced in October.

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