The Alaska Court of Appeals has upheld the conviction of a Montana man who stood trial for the shooting death of his girlfriend at a Yakutat lodge. The three-judge panel ruled that it wasn’t a mistake to allow evidence at trial of another, similar shooting.
Robert Dean Kowalski originally claimed the 1996 death of Sandra Perry was an accident.
Perry died in the room she shared with Kowalski at Glacier Bear Lodge in Yakutat. The case was closed when prosecutors could not disprove his claim and they declined to file charges.
Almost eight years later, Kowalski was sentenced to 40 years in prison for another fatal shooting, the death of Lorraine Kay Morin in Kalispell, Montana.
The similarities between the two shootings prompted cold case investigators to take another look at the Yakutat case.
In 2014, Kowalski stood trial in Juneau for Perry’s death. Jurors were told about the Montana incident, but not whether Kowalski was ever convicted of a crime or if he was serving a sentence for the shooting.
Alaska evidence rules prohibit the introduction of a defendant’s previous bad acts to prove a person’s character. However, there are exceptions allowing introduction of such information if it can prove motive, opportunity, intent, or absence of mistake or accident. Previous domestic violence crimes can also be introduced.
On appeal, Kowalski argued — in this case — the evidence rule was unconstitutional and the exceptions should not apply because the rule was enacted one year after the Yakutat shooting.
Court of Appeals judges disagreed and pointed to precedent in which the rule did not “alter the definition of crimes or increase punishment for criminal acts.”
The appellate panel also determined the trial court judge, Juneau Superior Court Judge Louis Menendez, carefully and correctly determined that the probative value of the Montana evidence had outweighed the risk of unfair prejudice to Kowalski.
The appeals court also ruled that Menendez was correct to exclude a memorandum written by then-Assistant District Attorney Rick Svobodny that was then passed on to the Perry family shortly after the Yakutat shooting. Svobodny wrote that he doubted he could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the shooting was a criminal act. Kowalski wanted the memo introduced as evidence during his trial, but Menendez ruled it was an inadmissible personal opinion.
Kowalski’s conviction and 40-year prison sentence stand in Perry’s death.
Now 57, Kowalski is incarcerated at the Cascade County Regional Prison in Great Falls, Montana.
