Man Pleads Innocent in Cabbie Killing

[Spoilers] By DAN RICE, Staff Writer
The 21-year-old man accused of killing a taxicab driver during a robbery on June July 14 pleaded innocent during a court hearing Friday.

Jonathan Beiderbeck, 21, is charged with stabbing 53-year-old Michael Belknap to death after robbing him in an Eagle Cab taxi.

He faces one count each of second-degree murder, first-degree robbery and first-degree vehicle theft as well as two counts each of tampering with physical evidence in connection with allegations that he tried to cover up the crime.

In a separate case, Beiderbeck is charged with two counts of second-degree burglary as well as one count each of second-degree theft and third-degree criminal mischief.

Those charges stem from accusations that Beiderbeck of broke into the Northland Aviation Building one week before the slaying and stole more than $500 worth of high-quality kitchen knives from a storehouse. One of the Cutco knives is the suspected murder weapon.

Beiderbeck was arraigned on all the charges in front of Fairbanks Superior Court Judge Niesje Steinkruger during a hearing Friday. He made no statements and a public defender entered not guilty pleas to all charges for him.

A trial in the murder case is scheduled to start Oct. 6. Beiderbeck is being held at Fairbanks Correctional Center on both cases in lieu of $260,000 bail plus a court-approved, third-party custodian. [/Spoilers]

I didn’t post this yesteday because there is an error in the article. I’ve corrected it in the spoilers text above, and sent the author an email about it.
As before, you can read the spoilers text, or follow this link to the original article.

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Robert Belknap has been writing online sporadically since 2001. See the colophon for more details.

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