Creston killer faces new charges in Alaska
<p>Robert Kowalski is pictured in Flathead District Court in 2009, when he was sentenced to 40 years for mitigated deliberate homicide.</p>
A Creston man who is in prison for shooting his girlfriend to death in 2008 has been indicted by a jury in Alaska for a similar crime that occurred there in 1996.
The Anchorage Daily News reports that Robert Kowalski was indicted by a Juneau grand jury last week for the shooting death of Sandra Perry, a 38-year-old mother of three, while they were vacationing together at a resort in Yakutat, Alaska.
Kowalski, who was 35 at the time, maintained that the shotgun shooting was an accident.
That’s similar to a claim he made in 2008 after his girlfriend, Lorraine Kay Morin, was shot in the face at her home off Montana 206 south of Columbia Falls.
Morin left behind six children, the youngest of whom was in elementary school.
After the shooting, Kowalski fled to his home on Montana 35 where he eventually was arrested following a 31-hour standoff with law enforcement.
Flathead County prosecutors maintained that Kowalski and Morin had been involved in an alcohol-fueled argument and that the shooting was not accidental.
Kowalski pleaded guilty to mitigated deliberate homicide by way of Alford plea. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison in April 2009.
The Flathead County conviction and similarities between the cases prompted Alaska prosecutors to revisit the 1996 shooting of Perry, which initially was determined to be accidental.
Kowalski told Alaska investigators he grabbed a shotgun in response to hearing what he thought was a bear outside their room at a resort, and that he tripped on a bed, fell on Perry and the gun went off as he stood up.
In both cases Kowalski shot girlfriends in the mouth from close range and stayed with the bodies several hours before calling authorities.
Both the Flathead County and Alaska shootings apparently were preceded by domestic disturbances. People in the room next to Kowalski’s at the Yakutat lodge reported hearing an argument that ended in a gunshot.
The Daily News reported that investigators have so far been silent on whether any new information played a part in Kowalski’s indictment.
Kowalski, now 50, remains behind bars in Montana pending extradition to Alaska, troopers told the Alaska newspaper. A Juneau judge set his bail at $1 million.