Anchorage judge sentences Adam Pringle to 55 years for 2022 killing of Keenan Wegener

Adam Darius Pringle, 44, was sentenced Friday to 55 years to serve for the March 2022 killing of Keenan Wegener in Anchorage. An Anchorage jury convicted him in December of second-degree murder and manslaughter. He faced up to 99 years.

Superior Court Judge Peter Ramgren imposed the sentence, more than four years after the killing.

Pringle was the second man convicted. A grand jury indicted him and Daniel Alex Rocero together in April 2022, and a separate jury convicted Rocero in 2023. Ramgren sentenced Rocero that September to 52 years in all, 50 for the killing and two for tampering with evidence, calling it "among the most serious" second-degree murders. The state identified Rocero as a member of the Norteños gang, and Ramgren said he had little prospect of rehabilitation. Pringle's sentence runs three years longer.

Evidence at trial showed the two men beat Wegener with an 8-pound sledgehammer and stood on his neck and chest, then put his body in a tote, according to the Department of Law. He died of asphyxia and blunt force trauma. Officers with the state's pretrial services division found him in an East Anchorage home two days later.

Anchorage police homicide detectives investigated, and Assistant District Attorneys Ashley McGraw and Nolan Gerlach prosecuted. Victims for Justice supported Wegener's family.

The state's announcement of the sentence includes no statement from Pringle or his attorney.