Judges: Sentence stands in attempted murder conviction

MEADOW LAKES — A man who blasted his neighbor with birdshot through a closed door deserves the nine-year sentence he received as a result, a state appeals court ruled Wednesday.

Kenneth A. Goldsbury was convicted at trial of shooting Marvin Long on Super Bowl Sunday in 2008. Both were living in hotel rooms there. Prior to the shooting, they’d been involved in a heated argument over a box of drywall mud.

According to the ruling written by judge Robert Coats, Goldsbury appealed once saying that he shouldn’t have been sentenced for both assault and attempted murder, that the charges should have merged since they related to the same crime.

The court agreed and sent it back to Superior Court Judge Kari Kristiansen for re-sentencing, who knocked the sentence down from 26 years with 16 suspended for 10 to serve to 20 years with 11 suspended for nine to serve.

Goldsbury appealed again saying that sentence was excessive and Kristiansen hadn’t taken into account how minor the injuries dealt to Long were.

In fact, when troopers first arrived to investigate the shooting, they found Long asleep in his room. He hadn’t sought treatment for his injuries.

But, Coats wrote, Kristiansen was well aware of how minor those injuries were. She was aware of a lot of other stuff, too.

According to Coats, a report drawn up just prior to Gosdsbury’s sentencing showed this wasn’t his first time settling a dispute with a pre-emptive gun blast.

“In 2002, according to the presentence report, Godsbury had shot at his cousin, Daniel Duncan. Goldsbury told the police that he had been on his boat when an intoxicated Duncan came onto the boat and started an argument,” Coats writes.

The cousin left the boat, but came back soon after.

“(Goldsbury) thought that Duncan was carrying a gun when he returned to the boat, so he fired two shots at Duncan (apparently hitting Duncan with the second shot),” Coats wrote.

Just like in the case at the Roadside, Goldsbury claimed self-defense, and in this instance he was never charged criminally.

“The court relied on the information in the presentence report, along with the fact of Goldburg’s present convictions, to conclude that Goldsbury ‘possesses weapons when he’s intoxicated and makes decisions to use those weapons in circumstances that are not reasonable,’” Coats wrote.

Kristiasen, Coats wrote, didn’t disregard the low-level of injury that Long received, she simply didn’t give that fact much weight.

“It appears that the court did not mention Long’s injuries in imposing sentence because those injuries did not favor prominently in the sentence,” Coats wrote.

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270 or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.