Killer gets 7 years

Aug. 4, 2006

By MARY AMES

Frontiersman

PALMER -A Talkeetna woman who shot her husband in June 2005 was sentenced to seven years in prison after a hearing that lasted almost six hours in Palmer Superior Court Thursday.

Kathleen Colbert, 53, originally was charged with second-degree murder, first- or second-degree manslaughter, driving under the influence and two counts of fourth-degree misconduct involving weapons for shooting her husband, Gary Colbert, 51. Colbert has been in custody since Alaska State Troopers arrested her Sept. 15.

Colbert pleaded guilty to one charge of manslaughter in May.

Under legislative guidelines, a manslaughter conviction could bring a sentence of seven to 11 years.

The state asked Judge Eric Smith to hand Colbert 20 years.

&#8220Gary Colbert is dead,” said Suzanne Powell. &#8220The defendant shot him in the middle of the forehead with a .357 magnum. She made a choice to get the gun. Gary Colbert had every right to be safe in his own house. Everybody should be able to step out on the porch without getting shot after a squabble.”

Sidney Billingslea, Colbert's Anchorage defense attorney, didn't see it the same way.

&#8220Everybody has a right to be safe in their own home and Kathy Colbert wasn't,” Billingslea said. &#8220She had a triggered trauma response to an escalated form of violence, and entered into a fugue state. She only knows in a disjointed way what happened next.”

Billingslea asked the court for a three-and-a-half year sentence.

Powell said that after Gary Colbert slapped his wife between two and four times, Kathleen Colbert said, &#8220That's it. You're dead. F— you,” walked upstairs and got her loaded .357. Then Colbert walked downstairs, raised her arm and fired out the open door, knowing her husband had just walked out onto the porch.

Colbert said she never saw her husband standing in the doorway. She was sitting at the kitchen table when he slapped her, breaking her sunglasses, she said. She tried calling 911, but he took the phone, slapped her again and walked out the door with the phone.

&#8220I walked upstairs,” Colbert said. &#8220I remember picking up the gun, I had it by my side. I fired a warning shot out the door. All I saw was sunshine and blue sky - I never saw Gary.”

After she fired, Kathleen Colbert said, she heard someone scream, &#8220Oh, my God,” and looked out the door to see Gary Colbert's legs and some of his body. She went into the house and called 911.

Colbert told the court that Gary Colbert was abusive to her when they were together from 1982 to 1986 in California and Oregon. She left Gary Colbert when their son, Brian, was 17 months old, and she &#8220hid out,” from Gary in Sunny Valley, Ore. But after about 11 years, Gary Colbert came back into their lives.

&#8220I'm not really clear how he found us again,” Colbert said.

When the man she was involved with died, Gary Colbert called Kathleen Colbert within a week, she said, and she, Brian and her disabled son, Jamie, visited Gary Colbert in Talkeetna. The Colberts discussed his previous abuse and Kathleen Colbert said she believed Gary's issues with alcohol, drugs and violence were over. They married in 2002.

&#8220Before I married him, I put him through tests,” she said. &#8220But that behavior creeps in. I made excuses for little things. In 2001, I told him if he ever hurt me or my kids, I'd shoot him.”

Kathleen Colbert had been with a friend at H & H Lakeview Lounge and Restaurant with a friend when Gary Colbert called her, angry about a puppy.

She had been drinking shots of Seagram's Seven and one tequila sunrise, she said. When Gary was angry like that, it was important that she return home to protect Jamie.

Five hours after the shooting, Kathleen Colbert's breath alcohol registered .069 on the Datamaster, Powell said.

In handing down Colbert's sentence, Judge Smith cited the recklessness of her actions and the need to deter people from resorting to guns.

&#8220In my job, I see every single time someone uses a gun in their own home it's a tragedy,” Smith said. &#8220Ms. Colbert took a loaded gun and fired through an open door while drunk, knowing her husband just stepped through the door, knowing there were people outside.”

Contact Mary Ames at

352-2284 or mary.ames@

frontiersman.com.