Bethel Police are looking for two people that were indicted in last month’s beating of the manager of the Long House Hotel.
It was April 18, about 2:15 a.m. on the night before Easter, when Don Black, the hotel manager, was awakened to help deal with a noise complaint. In his pajamas, he and Wesley Alexie, another employee at the hotel, approached a second-floor room to find out what was going on. Black says that when he said he was the manager and tried to enter the room, things escalated quickly. He sent Alexie to call the police.
Black recalls, “Next thing I know, I wind up off to the hospital with a broken jaw and two fractures in the skull, and then get medivaced to Anchorage for final stabilization and then eventual surgery.”
Black says that there were three people and a small child in the room. Nicole Prince answered the door and, according to Black, Jarvis Prince beat him after he asked if they had alcohol in the room.
“I’ve never had anything erupt to this degree. Never seen that amount of rage in anybody before,” said Black. “So it was all, all new to me.”
The Long House Hotel does not allow alcohol on the premises.
After reviewing testimony and evidence surrounding the incident, a Bethel Grand Jury issued two indictments. Jarvis Prince, age 30, is charged with first degree assault and Nicole Prince, also 30 years old, is charged with second degree assault. Warrants are outstanding for both of them.
The beating took place in a room rented by Jaclyne Hunter. Black says that she was there when he arrived to respond to the noise complaint, but there are no indictments against her in the court record.
Black is now recuperating from an operation and forced to sip his food through a straw for eight weeks. He is also spending a lot of time with his eyes closed because nerve damage makes it difficult to control the left side of his face. He can’t blink his left eye, which means he has to spend a lot of time with both eyes closed to keep his left eye moist.
“The big risk is if I don’t protect it and anything happens, it could dry out the cornea and lose the eye,” said Black.
Black’s health care is being covered through worker’s compensation insurance. He is recovering at his mother’s home in Kenai, Alaska and plans to return to work at Bethel’s Long House Hotel when he’s able to.