Gun lawsuit will be heard by Juneau jurors next month

Creative Commons photo by sparkle-motion.
Creative Commons photo by sparkle-motion.

A wrongful death lawsuit stemming from a Juneau shooting over eight years ago is finally headed to trial.

Another pretrial hearing was held Monday in the lawsuit filed by the family of Simone Kim against Ray Coxe, owner of the Juneau gun shop Rayco Sales.

Juneau Superior Court Judge Philip Pallenberg briefly considered bifurcating, or separating, the trial into two phases. The first phase would focus on how the murder weapon was acquired and then — depending on the jury’s verdict — the second phase would focus on liability and amount of damages. But he determined it would be more efficient to tackle both of those intertwined issues at the same time.

Anchorage painter Simone Kim, 26, was killed in August 2006 while working on the Fred Meyer expansion project in Juneau. Jason Coday, who just arrived from Nevada, walked up and shot Kim at point-blank range while was he was chatting with two landscapers behind the store.

Days before the shooting, Coday stopped in at Rayco Sales, left $200 on the counter and walked out with a .22 caliber Ruger rifle while a clerk was preoccupied. Coday did not fill out a Firearms Transaction Record, and there was no background check conducted before he acquired the weapon.

Coday was eventually convicted and sentenced to a total of 101 years in prison on charges of murder and weapons misconduct for sawing off the barrel of the rifle used in the crime.

Kim’s family later sued Coxe for wrongful death and negligence.

In earlier pretrial proceedings, the case went all the way to the Alaska Supreme Court on the constitutionality of the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) passed by Congress ten years ago. The law essentially shields gun manufacturers and dealers from liability stemming from the criminal or unlawful use of a firearm.

There are exceptions related to sellers who are accused of negligence or negligent entrustment, or who violate other laws related to the sale of firearms. The Alaska Supreme Court ruled that expert witness affidavits proposed by plaintiffs should have been considered before the case was dismissed at the lower court level.

Coday was originally named as a defendant in the civil suit, but he did not respond and defaulted in the case.

Jury selection is expected to start Feb. 9th and the trial may last one to two weeks.

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