Crime & Courts

Latest charging documents filed by state prosecutors portray a former police officer already on the path to self-destruction, and possibly willing to take as many of his former colleagues with him as he could.

Troy A. Wilson, 45, is being charged with attempted murder, assault, misconduct involving weapons, and criminal mischief in connection with Saturday’s night shooting and standoff on Black Wolf Way.

Wilson allegedly became intoxicated, threatened to hurt himself and his wife, and then fired on officers arriving at the scene. It was at least four hours later when Wilson surrendered.

In a criminal information and affidavit filed by District Attorney Dave Brower on Sunday, Wilson’s wife is described as calling 911 and saying that he was suicidal.

Later, in another phone call with the Juneau Police Department, Troy Wilson allegedly says that “anyone who comes within a thousand yards of my house will be dead. It’s time to get this thing done. Anyone who comes down my street they’re going to die. They’re done. If they f*** with me, they’re going to die.” Later, he allegedly says that he “will kill the world” and “at the end of the night I won’t be alive.”

One of the first officers on the scene was Darin Shultz. After leaving his patrol car, as many as eight rounds hit and flattened both left side tires, shattered a door window, and went through the hood. At least four other officers also saw or heard indications that they were being directly fired upon. They allegedly saw Wilson firing or spotted muzzle flashes from the open front door, and from the upstairs windows on the side and back of his house.

Officer Lee Phelps was positioned behind some trees at the back. Phelps reportedly thought he was going to die with rounds impacting around him. A bullet hole was found in a tree behind where Phelps was positioned.

A truck parked across the street from Wilson’s house took a round in the radiator while the resident of another home down the street heard one of the two bullets that hit his house.

According to the affidavit, Investigator Kim Horn appears to have been the crisis negotiator that communicated with Wilson for four-and-a-half hours, eventually getting him to surrender without any gunfire returned by officers.

Wilson apparently had some equipment left over from when he was a Juneau police lieutenant and SWAT instructor. The charging documents do not list everything that was reportedly found, but he allegedly had at least one bullet-proof vest. He also apparently had night vision goggles, at least two hand-guns, a high-powered rifle, and plenty of ammunition. In addition to the rounds that were already fired, he had at least four to six loaded handgun clips on him when he was taken into custody.

The criminal information and affidavit will form the basis of the charges to be filed against Wilson. They are likely an incomplete and very one-sided picture of what happened that night.
Following his departure from the Juneau Police Department in December after over fifteen years on the force, Wilson was recently working as a juvenile probation officer for the state.

Wilson had his first court appearance Sunday morning. He remains held at Lemon Creek Correctional Center pending posting of $500,000 cash bail.

Wilson is expected to appear in Juneau District Court before Judge John Hutchins Tuesday afternoon. The case will likely be heard by a grand jury soon and then moved to Juneau Superior Court, the normal venue for consideration of criminal felony charges.

Closing arguments could happen Tuesday, the seventh day, in the Kenneth Nalan assault trial.

Nalan is being charged with shooting John Duran in his own bedroom last December. The reasons for the shooting and how it happened have, so far, remained unclear. But Nalan himself took the stand on Monday to refute testimony by other witnesses and explain what he remembered had happened.

Nalan explained that he’s originally from a large family from Skagway, does carpentry and construction, owns his own home, is married, has three kids, and adopted one of witness John Day’s children.

Nalan portrayed the image of someone who tries to avoid conflict or does not get angry very often. A friend gave Nalan a gun after he got beat up the year before, but he never fired it and purposely squirrelled it away in the back of his bedroom closet. On December 20th, he was trying to give the hint to Day and Duran – or J.D. – that the party was over as they went back to his bedroom. Nalan was drunk, tired, needed some rest before work the next day.

Nalan also said that Duran trying to learn to play guitar from him never happened, ever.

During a long recess before his testimony, Nalan and his defense attorney Eric Hedland rearranged Superior Court Judge Louis Menendez’s courtroom to recreate Nalan’s bedroom, pushing tables back, marking out the exact dimensions of the bedroom and doorway to the hall with blue painter’s masking tape on the courtroom carpeting. The edge of the jury box essentially became the head of the bed and the wall near where Nalan says he was sitting at his computer desk.

Hedland’s colleagues from the public defender’s office helped wheel an armoire from Nalan’s bedroom into the courtroom on a hand truck. A cheap acoustic guitar that Duran said he was playing was also brought in, and the handtruck does stand-in duty for Nalan’s motorcycle parked along one wall.

During what may’ve been the most dramatic portion of the entire trial, Hedland gets Nalan to step down off the witness stand to reenact the shooting in front of the jury. Hedland essentially plays the part of Duran and stage-blocks the scene as he presses hard for Nalan to tell what happened next.

During this exchange, Nalan’s back is to the jury. But he’s clearly upset and remains distraught during the remainder of the hour-and-twenty minutes of testimony. Hedland presses his own client, almost badgering him as he speeds up the pacing of the questions, not giving him a chance to think about his answers. Nalan says there’s a noise like a yell or a “Rarrrr,” Duran emerges from behind the armoire holding the .357 Magnum that he apparently took from Nalan’s closet.

According to Nalan, he and Duran both have two hands on the gun and Nalan says he’s trying to get finger webbing inserted under the gun’s hammer. Nalan says he gets the gun twisted around. He falls backward and Duran falls forward toward him. There’s a flash as the gun goes off.

Before Nalan’s testimony, Hedland called for a judgment of acquittal based on the belief that the state did not carry its burden beyond a reasonable doubt. But that was denied by Judge Menendez who said that he believed this was one of those classic cases that needed to be decided by a jury.

Nalan is expected to be cross-examined by District Attorney Dave Brower on Tuesday. Then, closing arguments and the case goes to the jury for deliberations.

At least one more day of testimony in the case of a Juneau man who contends that shooting a drinking friend in the face was self-defense.

Video of police investigators trying to question Kenneth Nalan were shown to the jury in the case on Friday. Nalan is seen and heard wailing “Please God, please, I hope he lives,” later saying he “just shot a man” and then saying later that “he didn’t take the gun. He instead grabbed it and pulled it around.”

Nalan is on trial for injuring John Duran last December in his bedroom on Glacierwood Drive. It was Nalan’s own .357 Magnum that was fired, but who really had control of the weapon and how it went off is still unclear. Apparent shock-induced gaps in memory, pot smoking, and extreme intoxication by either Nalan, Duran, or witness John Day have done little to clarify what happened that night.

After a playing a recorded conversation that Duran had with investigators days after shooting about the amount of beer he drank, he answers questions posed by defense attorney Eric Hedland under cross-examination.

He later said he didn’t remember seeing a gun or grabbing a gun.

Duran said during testimony Friday that he was playing with one of Nalan’s guitars when the bedroom door opened, ostensibly from Nalan returning from a bathroom in the hallway. That’s the last instant that he remembered before he got shot. But Duran’s own description of which way he was facing in the bedroom – his left side facing the door and the hallway – conflicts with where the slug was found and his own testimony earlier about how he was injured. He said the bullet entered under his left eye and exited under his right eye. The slug was reported found lodged in the wall next to the bedroom door. That’s the wrong direction if Duran intends to imply through his testimony was that he was shot by Nalan entering the bedroom from the hallway.

Final testimony is expected on Monday. Then possibly closing arguments before the case goes to the jury as soon as Tuesday.

A former Juneau police officer is under arrest, being held without bail at Lemon Creek Correctional Center, for allegedly shooting at other officers and prompting a standoff that lasted over four hours.

Troy Wilson, 45, allegedly became intoxicated and threatened to hurt himself Saturday night. He had a gun and, according to a statement from the department, allegedly threatened to shoot any of his former colleagues if he saw them near his house at 9200 Black Wolf Way in the Montana Creek area.

Police have not identified the woman at the house who made the original call. Police say she safely escaped to a neighbor’s home.

Police say they asked nearby residents to evacuate, or stay inside their homes if they chose not to leave.

Police responded with SWAT and a crisis negotiations team, but Wilson allegedly began firing shots at his former colleagues, as many as 75 times. A police car was hit at least half-dozen times.

It’s not clear if any of the responding officers returned fire.

Police received the call Saturday at 10:13 p.m. The incident continued until 2:49 a.m., Sunday, when Wilson surrendered.

None of the responding officers were injured.

Wilson is being charged with eight felonies. They include first degree attempted murder, second degree weapons misconduct, third degree assault involving domestic violence, third degree criminal mischief, and four counts of third degree assault involving a police officer.

Wilson was a lieutenant when he resigned from JPD in December, after more than 15 years with the force. He has been working as a probation officer for the Alaska Division of Juvenile Justice.

In his years with the police department he was a school officer in the high school and elementary schools, and also worked in special investigations.

Capital City Fire and Rescue officials say they have solved the mystery of some of the arsons committed in Juneau. They believe that a seven-year old boy started at least five of the fires in the downtown area. They include fires at a commercial structure, and an elementary school and an outdoor grass area that the boy, his name not being released, allegedly admitted starting over the last four months. The boy was apparently was tracked down by use of video surveillance at a recent fire.

Total damage was estimated at $1000.

The arsons were solved by the Juneau Fire & Arson Joint Task Force which includes CCF&R Fire Marshals and Detectives from the Juneau Police Department.

We’ll continue to update this story as it develops.

Another witness was called to testify yesterday about their opinion of the character or reputation of a Juneau man shot last December in the valley. This was to establish the state of mind of Kenneth Nalan who allegedly pulled the trigger, wounding John Duran.

Nalan’s brother-in law John Day admitted that he was so drunk that he remembered little of the night of the shooting at the home on Glacierwood Drive.

“I haven’t really thought about it,” said Day. “I’ve tried to piece it together, but I can’t remember anything.”

With the jury later absent from the courtroom, Day described various instances which Duran apparently boasted or told of an alleged robbery attempt, an assault, and even a supposed homicide. It could establish what Nalan may have been thinking or feeling later that night about having a much bigger and intimidating person in his bedroom if it was repeated in front of Nalan on the night of December 20, 2011. But Day, also friends with Duran, seem to change his story later on the stand and said he couldn’t really remember when the jury and Duran were both back in the courtroom.

Shooting victim and prosecution witness John Duran also testified, detailing how they talked, drank a little beer, smoked weed, and went to Nalan’s bedroom to listen to music and play guitar on that night. But he couldn’t remember how he got shot or much of anything afterward.

“I remember waking up asking Ken Nalan about how this happened,” said Duran. “And he said I threatened him, and I called him a liar.”

Duran says the bullet from the fired .357-magnum entered beneath his left eye, went under his nose and exited underneath his right eye. Duran says he has a metal plate essentially as an upper right cheekbone that always hurts. He says he has little feeling on the skin there.

Duran denied most of the stories repeated about him, his supposed nine years experience in the martial arts and frequent slap-sparring, and involvement in the alleged homicide.

Proceedings got off to rocky start yesterday morning. One of the fourteen jurors was eventually excused after writing a note to the judge. She reported that another potential juror, very early in the juror selection process, commented that he thought Nalan was a “hothead.” He was not selected for the jury, but the note-writing female juror said she remembered the offhand remark after Day’s fiance testified Wednesday about Duran’s character. It’s unclear if anyone else in the jury pool heard the judgmental remark. After a prolonged inquiry by Nalan’s attorney – including a session that was closed to the media and the public – the female juror was gone and the jury was down to thirteen.

Testimony is expected to continue through Friday.