Anthony Pisano was convicted of murdering three men at a precious metals business in Anchorage, Alaska on September 12, 2017. The victims were Bullion Brothers store owner Steven Cook, and nearby apartment residents Daniel McCreadie and Kenneth Hartman. Pisano was also convicted of assaulting Michael DuPree, the only other survivor of the incident.
Pisano's defense claimed that Cook was shot and killed by his business partner, DuPree, which led to a shootout during which Pisano shot and killed McCreadie and Hartman in self-defense. However, the jury accepted the prosecution's account of the crime, which characterized it as a botched robbery of the store by Pisano.
On May 24, 2024, Pisano was sentenced to 300 years in prison. The sentence was given by Superior Court Judge Jack McKenna, who sentenced Pisano to the maximum 99 years for each victim. Pisano was also sentenced to five years for assaulting DuPree, with two years to be served concurrently.
Anthony Pisano. Autographed Letter, Signed. Handwritten, Commercial #10 (4.125 × 9.5 envelope). Alaskan Frontier. June 3, 2024. Content unknown. SEALED.
An Alaska man who murdered three others during a precious metals heist gone horribly awry was sentenced to spend 300 years in prison.
Anthony Pisano, 50, was sentenced by Alaska Superior Court Judge Jack McKenna on Thursday over the Sept. 12, 2017, triple murder at the Bullion Brothers store on Spenard Road in Anchorage, according to a Friday press release issued by the Alaska Department of Law.
Justice in the case for the three victims, who included the defendant’s friend and the store’s co-owner Steven Cook, 31, as well as employees Daniel McCreadie, 31, and Kenneth Hartman, 48, was a long time coming — complicated by the onset and judicial shutdown measures, of the COVID-19 pandemic and, later, by a hung jury in an initial trial.
After a second trial spanning more than three months, including some 50 witnesses, over 1,000 pieces of evidence, and a weekend’s worth of deliberations, Pisano was convicted by a jury of his peers on 10 counts, including three counts of murder in the first degree in November 2023.
During the prosecution, the state relied on the star witness testimony of Michael Dupree, another former friend of the defendant and the store’s co-owner. Pisano was also convicted of assaulting Dupree and had sought to frame him for the violence that unfolded at the store.
“He walked in one morning and shot and killed Steve,” Dupree said during the sentencing hearing. “With no words, no agitation from Steve. No, he just looked at him, face to face, and shot him multiple times. And moments later, he tried training the gun on me.”
During the trial, the state argued Pisano killed Cook during the robbery and then killed McCreadie and Hartman — when they ran into the building after hearing the initial gunshots — to dispose of witnesses.
Defense attorney Kevin Fitzgerald said Pisano admitted to shooting Hartman and McCreadie but did so in self-defense. Fitzgerald said the prosecution’s robbery theory didn’t make sense because Pisano could have stolen from the store “with impunity” as he and Cook were friends. To hear the defense tell it, Hartman and McCreadie were only shot that day because Piano believed they were armed — and they only came running in after Dupree shot Cook over a business dispute.
Dupree, however, was never charged. Investigators did not buy that version of events. Anchorage District Attorney Brittany Dunlop excoriated the self-defense theory during the trial as nonsensical because Hartman had been shot in the back of the head, execution-style.
During sentencing, things took a turn toward the dramatic and raw.
Cook’s father held up a printed picture of a metal statue with a hollowed-out body cavity, using a visual metaphor for grief — and implored the defendant’s attorney to look at the picture, too.
“It takes your whole heart and a giant hole in your chest,” the grieving parent said, then turned to face the defense table. “I want you to look at this, too. If you’ll look this way, Mr. Fitzgerald.”
The judge then cut the victim off.
Pisano was given the maximum sentence of 99 years behind bars for each murder, along with a five-year sentence for attacking Dupree — with two of those years assessed to run concurrently, or at the same time — for a combined sentence of 300 years.
“Judge McKenna heard evidence and found that between the two trials, Pisano had solicited another inmate to murder Michael Dupree,” the Department of Law’s press release explained. “He noted that Pisano showed a significant level of premeditation, and that he would have killed anybody who came into his path of escape.”
VIDEO: Pisano sentenced to 300 years for Spenard gold shop triple murder | https://youtu.be/XFyA0l3K2WA
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