The murder of Sandra Perry
Yakutat, Yakutat County, Alaska · 1996
Overview
Sandra Perry, a mother of three from the Seattle area, was shot and killed by a 12-gauge shotgun at about 3 a.m. on July 21, 1996, in Room 10 of the Glacier Bear Lodge in Yakutat, Alaska, where she was on vacation with her boyfriend, Robert Kowalski. A guest in the next room told troopers he heard the couple arguing before the gunshot. Kowalski said he had grabbed the shotgun after they heard a bear outside, tripped and fell on her, and that it fired as he got up. Troopers treated the death as an accident, and prosecutors, who could not disprove his account, declined to charge him. In 1998 the case's evidence was discarded. In March 2008 Kowalski shot another girlfriend, Lorraine Kay Morin, in Montana, again calling it an accident; he was convicted there and sentenced to 40 years. The similarities led the Alaska State Troopers' cold case unit to reopen the Yakutat case, and in September 2011 a Juneau grand jury indicted him. At a four-week trial in 2014, jurors heard firearms and crime-scene experts and evidence of the Montana shooting. On April 11, 2014, they convicted him of second-degree murder and deadlocked on first-degree murder. He was sentenced to 50 years with 10 suspended, and the conviction was upheld on appeal in 2018.
How it was solved
No new forensic test solved this case; a second killing did. In 1996 Alaska State Troopers heard Robert Kowalski's account that the shotgun fired when he tripped and fell on Sandra Perry, a guest in the next room told them the couple had been arguing before the shot, and a prosecutor concluded he could not disprove an accident. The case was closed, and in 1998 its physical evidence, including clothing, objects from Room 10 and recordings of the interviews, was discarded. After Kowalski shot another girlfriend, Lorraine Kay Morin, in Montana in March 2008 and again called it an accident, he was convicted and sentenced to 40 years. A troopers spokeswoman said that revisiting a case when its person of interest turns up in a similar one is standard procedure for the Cold Case Unit. A retired Anchorage police captain working for the unit began on the Perry file in 2010, visited Room 10 in February 2011 and rebuilt the scene with matching bed frames. A Juneau grand jury indicted Kowalski in September 2011. At trial in March and April 2014, a crime laboratory examiner testified that the shotgun was within a few feet of Perry but not touching her, and the investigator testified that the soot and wall evidence did not fit Kowalski's account of falling from the foot of the bed. The judge allowed the jury to hear about the Montana shooting, under a rule of evidence that lets prior acts show intent or absence of accident, but not that Kowalski had been convicted. A defense expert said an accident could not be ruled out. The jury convicted Kowalski of second-degree murder on April 11, 2014, and could not agree on first-degree murder, which prosecutors dropped. The Alaska Court of Appeals upheld the conviction in 2018.
Sources
- Montana man faces cold-case trial in Alaska (October 2, 2011)
“Although a man staying in the next room said he heard the pair arguing before the gunshot, no charges were filed, court records show.”
- Final arguments in the Kowalski trial in Juneau (April 2014)
“a Juneau jury began deliberations in the trial of Kowalski, 53, who fired a shotgun that killed Sandra Perry at around 3 a.m. on July 21, 1996, in Room 10 of Yakutat's Glacier Bear Lodge”
- End in sight for Yakutat homicide trial (April 5, 2014)
“On Friday, McPherron explained Kowalski’s alternate versions of the event in two interviews conducted just a few days after Perry’s death.”
- Firearms, crime scene analysts testify in Yakutat homicide trial (March 28, 2014)
“He started working on the Perry case in 2010, largely sparked by Kowalski’s earlier conviction in the death of Lorraine Kay Morin in Montana in 2008.”
- Prosecution draws parallels between Yakutat and Montana shootings (April 3, 2014)
“He has claimed the shooting was an accident, but he was charged only after his conviction for a similar shooting of another woman in Montana.”
- Defense rests, judgment of acquittal denied (April 9, 2014)
“It included clothing, objects found in Room 10 of the lodge where the shooting occurred, as well as video and tape recordings of investigators’ interviews with Kowalski that were discarded in 1998.”
- Jury hangs on murder charge, convicts on another (April 11, 2014)
“A Juneau jury has convicted Robert Kowalski of second degree murder for conduct with extreme indifference to the value of human life.”
- Prosecutors dropping undecided murder charge in Yakutat case (April 18, 2014)
“During a court hearing on Thursday, prosecutor James Fayette said prosecutors conferred with the Perry family and agreed to dismiss the first-degree murder charge.”
- Jury convicts Montana man in '96 death (April 14, 2014)
“Alaska investigators at first concluded the death was accidental. The case was reopened after Kowalski was convicted of killing another girlfriend six years ago.”
- Yakutat homicide case will likely be appealed (July 26, 2014)
“Judge Menendez sentenced Kowalski to 50 years in prison with 10 years suspended, slightly higher than the benchmark 30 years for such a conviction.”
- Appeals court rejects challenge to 1996 Yakutat homicide conviction (June 29, 2018)
“The case was closed when prosecutors could not disprove his claim and they declined to file charges.”
- Appeals court upholds Yakutat murder conviction (June 22, 2018)
“The Alaska Court of Appeals has upheld the conviction of a Washington state man for a 1996 murder in Yakutat.”