Mario Jackson is sentenced to 198 years for the downtown Anchorage killings of Shelia Aguchak and Bobby DeLoach Jr.

A sentence after a jury verdict is the judgment on the counts the jury found. Judge McKenna called these the worst first-degree murder cases he has presided over and described them as planned executions. Jackson denied being the shooter during the investigation and on the witness stand. He can still appeal. Alaska's News Source reported that 198 years is the maximum the law allowed on these counts.

The Alaska Department of Law said Monday, Oct. 5, 2026, that Anchorage Superior Court Judge McKenna sentenced Mario Jackson, 37, on Friday, Oct. 2, to a composite term of 198 years to serve. The Anchorage Police Department posted the release. Alaska's News Source reported that the term is the maximum sentence allowed. A jury found Jackson guilty in May of two counts of first-degree murder and four counts of second-degree murder in the Oct. 17, 2025, deaths of Shelia Aguchak and Bobby DeLoach Jr. in downtown Anchorage.

The department's account is the prosecution's. It says Jackson, who had a romantic interest in Aguchak, lured both of them to a location in Anchorage and shot DeLoach. As the two ran, he followed them and cornered them in a parking lot. Alaska's News Source reported the lot was near the American Red Cross building at 235 E. Eighth Ave. The department said surveillance video shows Jackson walking up as both pleaded with him to stop, loading his gun, shooting Aguchak as she tried to run, reloading, and then shooting each of them in the head before he left. Alaska's News Source reported that charging documents describe a woman on the video saying "please stop" and "Mario, stop."

At first, police did not know who the shooter was. The department said Anchorage Police Department homicide detectives used traffic and surveillance cameras to follow the suspect to a room at the Travel Lodge, where he was identified as Jackson. Alaska's News Source, citing charging documents, reported that motel video showed a man in black with a speaker strapped to his chest ride an electric scooter in about four minutes after the shooting and go straight to a room registered to Jackson. Police arrested him the next day at a mini mart on Ninth Avenue. A search of the room turned up an empty Federal-brand ammunition box that matched the Federal .45-caliber casings found at the scene, the station reported.

Jackson testified at the May trial. Alaska's News Source reported he told jurors he was riding near Town Square that night, heard gunfire and ignored it, and that the ammunition and scooters in his room were items hotel guests had left behind. Prosecutors pointed to photos of Aguchak on his wall, selfies of the two together, and text messages about her sent to DeLoach's phone. Former Assistant District Attorney Betsy Bull tried the case, and Assistant District Attorney Rachel K. Gernat handled the sentencing. The station reported the defense did not respond to a request for comment. The jury's verdict is the finding in this case, and an appeal would test it. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.