Man guilty of killing girlfriend in Alaska

A Flathead Valley man now has been convicted of killing two girlfriends in incidents in two states 12 years apart.

A jury in Juneau, Alaska, on Friday found Robert Kowalski, 53, guilty of second-degree murder for fatally shooting Sandra Perry on July 21, 1996, at Yakutat’s Glacier Bear Lodge.

In 2009, Kowalski was convicted of mitigated deliberate homicide for the 2008 shooting death of another girlfriend, Lorraine Kay Morin, at her home south of Columbia Falls. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison in April 2009.

Because of the similarities between the two shootings — both women were shot in the head at close range and Kowalski claimed both were accidents — Alaska officials reopened the 1996 case and charged him with murder. 

 According to the Juneau Empire, the Alaska jury deadlocked on a first-degree murder charge that would have required jurors to find Kowalski intentionally killed Perry.

Jurors were unanimous in convicting Kowalski of second-degree murder for causing Perry’s death by showing an “extreme indifference” to the value of human life.

The Empire reported that Juneau Superior Court Judge Louis Menendez declared a mistrial on the first-degree count and scheduled a status hearing this week. Prosecutor have 45 days to decide whether to pursue another trial on the first-degree murder count.

Kowalski will be sentenced later for the second-degree murder conviction, for which he could face up to 99 years in prison.

Perry, 39, a mother of three children, was from the Seattle area. She and Kowalski were vacationing together in Alaska when she was killed by a shotgun blast from Kowalski.

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 the Flathead Valley crime, Kowalski shot Morin in the face. 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 previously was cited and fined in 2003 for assaulting a family member and violating a restraining order at his Bigfork home. In 2005 Kowalski was accused of threatening, kicking and pushing his ex-wife and threatening a stepson, also in the Bigfork area. He was cited for drunken driving on the same date.