Kenai Superior Court

River John Aspelund was initially deemed incompetent to stand trial after he was diagnosed with schizophrenia following his arrest. The state Court of Appeals later ruled he could be involuntarily medicated.

In December, a Kenai superior court judge sentenced 37-year-old Nathaniel Erfurth to 77 years and one month in prison, with most of that suspended.

Although sentenced to 77 years and one month, a majority of that sentence was suspended. Erfurth’s active jail time is 20 years and one month.

Alaska State Troopers say 45-year-old Aaron “Scott” Merritt was found unresponsive in his Anchorage cell on Nov. 21 and was pronounced dead five days later. A Kenai Grand Jury indicted Merritt on 20 felony counts of sexual assault and abuse of a minor in late October.

A Kenai Grand Jury indicted 45-year-old Aaron “Scott” Merritt last week in a case the Kenai Police Department began investigating more than two decades ago.

Jurors found 37-year-old Nathaniel Erfurth guilty on 28 counts in the case. He faces presumptive prison time of five to 15 years per count.

Thirty-seven year old Nathaniel Erfurth faces 55 charges after a former student accused him of sexually abusing her while she was a minor.

The former Soldotna High School teacher and local teacher’s union president faces 55 charges after a former student reported she’d had a sexual relationship with Erfurth when she was a minor.

Nathaniel Erfurth, 35, of Soldotna, still faces 55 counts in the case and filed his own civil complaint against his accuser on Monday.

Nathan Erfurth's attorney filed a motion to dismiss the case in January, and asked for a hearing to discuss discrepancies between his transcription of recorded conversations that serve as critical evidence in the case and the state's.