In Anchorage, Adam Pringle received 55 years to serve, three years after co-defendant Daniel Rocero was sentenced to a 52-year active term.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Two men convicted by different juries in the killing of Keenan Wegener are now serving prison terms measured in decades after an Anchorage judge sentenced Adam Darius Pringle to 55 years, completing the second prosecution arising from the March 2022 homicide.
Pringle, 44, and Daniel Alex Rocero were accused of acting together during the fatal assault on Wegener, but Alaska prosecutors brought their cases to juries on different timelines. Rocero was convicted in May 2023 and received an active sentence totaling 52 years later that year. Pringle was convicted in December 2025 of second-degree murder and manslaughter and was sentenced in September 2026 to 55 years of active incarceration. Both men were sentenced by Anchorage Superior Court Judge Peter Ramgren.
The separate outcomes reflect one shared set of underlying events. The Alaska Department of Law said trial evidence showed Pringle and Rocero beat the 27-year-old Wegener with an 8-pound metal sledgehammer, pressed on his neck and chest and placed his body in a large plastic tote. An autopsy determined that Wegener died of blunt-force trauma and asphyxia. His body remained at an East Anchorage residence until officers discovered it two days after the killing.
Rocero’s prosecution was the first to reach a jury. He was found guilty of second-degree murder, manslaughter and tampering with evidence in May 2023. At his September sentencing, the court imposed 60 years with 10 suspended on the homicide convictions, leaving 50 years to serve, plus two years for evidence tampering. He was also ordered to spend 10 years on probation after completing his prison term, according to the Department of Law.
That hearing included information that did not appear in the state’s later, shorter announcement of Pringle’s sentence. Wegener’s relatives and friends addressed the court and described him as caring and kind, the department said. Ramgren called Rocero’s crime “among the most serious” second-degree murders. The judge also considered Rocero’s history, including a juvenile armed-robbery adjudication in California, and concluded that his prospects for rehabilitation were limited.
Pringle’s case remained pending after Rocero had already been convicted and sentenced. A separate Anchorage jury did not reach a verdict against Pringle until December 2025. Prosecutors again relied on evidence concerning the fatal beating, pressure applied to Wegener’s chest and neck and the placement of his body in the tote. The jury convicted Pringle of second-degree murder and manslaughter. The state said he faced up to 99 years before Ramgren ultimately selected the 55-year active term.
The charges were not identical in the two cases. Although both men were convicted of second-degree murder and manslaughter, Rocero was also convicted of tampering with evidence. The Department of Law’s sentencing announcement for Pringle lists only his two homicide convictions. The difference accounts for part of the way the two sentences are described: Rocero received 50 active years for the homicide convictions and another two for tampering, while Pringle’s announced sentence is 55 years of active jail time.
The prosecutions also unfolded against evidence developed after officers found Wegener on March 20, 2022. Alaska Pretrial Services officers had been checking on him because his ankle monitor appeared not to have moved for about two days. They traced the device to a Kalgin Street home and heard its signal from the garage after arriving at the property. Inside the garage, authorities found Wegener’s body in the tote, setting off the homicide investigation.
A homeowner’s account helped investigators build an early timeline. According to the probable cause affidavit described by local news outlets, the woman said she had heard Pringle, Rocero and Wegener arguing downstairs on March 18. She said Pringle later came upstairs and indicated he had knocked Wegener unconscious, then asked her for assistance because she was a nurse. Rocero separately told her Wegener was not breathing, she said, and she urged the men to call 911. Those statements were part of the investigation that preceded the later trials.
The homeowner told police she never went downstairs to examine Wegener and expressed fear about cooperating with investigators. Authorities continued gathering evidence, and Pringle and Rocero were indicted in connection with the death on March 31, 2022. The cases then began the long process that ultimately separated them into different trials, verdict dates and sentencing hearings.
For Rocero, that process took a little more than a year to reach a jury verdict. For Pringle, it lasted more than three years before his conviction and more than four years before sentencing. That difference in timing meant that one defendant was already serving a long prison term while the other still faced an unresolved murder prosecution arising from the same death. Pringle’s sentence ended that procedural split.
The state’s evidence nevertheless treated the fatal assault as conduct involving both men. In its announcements about Pringle’s conviction and sentence, the Department of Law described both Pringle and Rocero as participating in the attack. Authorities said Wegener suffered both the force injuries and asphyxia that caused his death. The government’s description of the case therefore linked the defendants’ actions even though juries considered criminal responsibility at separate trials.
The investigation itself involved several Alaska agencies and organizations. The Anchorage Police Department’s Homicide Unit investigated the killing. The Alaska Pretrial Services Division played a central early role because its officers located Wegener through the ankle-monitor inquiry. Anchorage Assistant District Attorneys Ashley D. McGraw and Nolan Gerlach prosecuted Pringle’s case, according to the state. Victims for Justice assisted Wegener’s family during the proceedings.
More than four years after Wegener was killed, there is now no unsentenced defendant identified in the state’s latest public account of the case. Rocero is serving 52 active years, including the evidence-tampering term, and Pringle has been ordered to serve 55 years. The separate cases reached their final sentencing stages three years apart, but both arose from the same March 2022 killing and ended with lengthy terms of incarceration.
Author note: Last updated November 7, 2026.