Man accused of cocaine-induced rampage enters reduced plea

PALMER -- A man accused of terrorizing a quiet Wasilla area neighborhood and dousing a home with gasoline before setting it on fire last June entered a change-of-plea agreement Tuesday at Palmer Superior Court.

Gordon Earl Samel, 39, was scheduled for jury trial Monday morning, but in a last-minute agreement with the state he pled no contest to arson and theft charges. In exchange, the state dropped first-degree arson charges to second-degree arson. His sentencing is scheduled for April 12.

At the same hearing, Samel pled no contest to third-degree theft charges in connection with another case in which he is accused of leaving Carrs Grocery Store with more than $275 worth of groceries in a cart. Along with entering the arson and theft pleas, he also admitted violating probation in three other cases that could result in more than 600 additional days in jail.

Troopers said in court records that Samel admitted to using cocaine before he went on a rampage in early June. He reportedly threatened to kill all the cats in the world, threw garbage cans and rocks and set ablaze a wood, two-story A-frame home on Caribou Loop in Wasilla.

Samel reportedly scuffled with two responding Alaska State Troopers June 6 when they tried to arrest him after responding to the fire incident. They were able to subdue Samel by stunning him with a Tazar gun, according to charging documents. Once troopers handcuffed and placed him in the back seat of a patrol car, Samel allegedly kicked out the right back-door window with his bare feet.

The damaged home was owned by Shirley Durling, a single mother with two young children. The family dog, Fritz, was at the residence when Samel set it ablaze, a friend of the homeowner told the Frontiersman at the time.

Samel told troopers he untied the barking dog after the fire started so it wouldn't die, according to court documents.

Samel also tried to climb aboard a Laidlaw Transit Inc. bus with 15 Colony High School students inside, yelled profanities, then stepped off the bus after the driver told him to go, said District Attorney Roman Kalytiak.

Samel's public defenders, in their preparations for trial, were set to argue that Samel should not be charged for first-degree arson because he lacked the intent necessary for conviction.

"The defense was that he was unaware of his complete actions because the drugs he apparently had taken," Kalytiak said. "People witnessed at the time that he was acting very strange."

The home suffered $50,000 to $60,000 worth of damage, troopers said. Smoke and fire damaged the contents of the home, and the fire blackened the porch and front walls of the home.

Samel was apparently living at his sister's house on Grey Wolf Drive, a few streets away from the place where the incident occurred. After he was taken to Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility in Palmer, investigators were given permission to search his bedroom and seized what they believed to be cocaine, court documents stated.

Durling's neighbor, Clarence Copeland, said he first noticed Samel after he emerged from the woods across the street, wearing only one shoe and muttering something about killing cats.

"I told him I didn't have any," Copeland said.

Samel started walking down the street, and Copeland said he went into his house and told his wife to call 911. With his wife on the phone, Copeland said he saw Samel douse his neighbor's house with gasoline, then set it on fire.

Armed with an unloaded rifle, Copeland and other neighbors were able to hold Samel until troopers arrived.

This was not Samel's first brush with the law. According to court records, Samel has no less than 29 convictions since 1981, including two drunken-driving charges, resisting arrest, theft and domestic-violence assault.

Apparently in a fit of anger, just days before Christmas 1997, Samel reportedly killed a Rottweiler puppy during a domestic dispute. According to court records, Samel assaulted his girlfriend when she tried to keep him from burning her young daughters' Christmas presents and destroying the home. When the woman and her children retreated to a back room, according to the documents, Samel stabbed the family's puppy, just a few months old, with a steak knife when he found the dog nosing through garbage. The puppy ran into another bedroom, where Samel reportedly shot and killed it with a .20-gauge shotgun as it cowered under a bed.