Man gets four months for assault, DWI

PALMER -- A 21-year-old Valley resident will serve four months in prison for third-degree assault and another 60 days for driving while intoxicated.

Michael D. Halla was sentenced Aug. 22 in Superior Court by Judge Beverly Cutler. She stipulated the terms be served consecutively rather than concurrently.

Third-degree assault is a class C felony. Originally, Halla also was charged with operator failing to render assistance to an injured person after an accident -- a class B felony with possible punishment of 10 years in prison. The latter charge was dropped in exchange for no contest pleas to the other two counts.

The charges stem from an April 8, 2002, motor-vehicle collision at the intersection of Parks Highway and Vine Road. Alaska State Trooper Bill Connors said Halla was driving a green Chevrolet truck with passenger Aaron M. Forwood when the one-vehicle accident occurred at 3:30 a.m.

According to Connors' report, Halla left Forwood in the truck after the accident and got a ride in a red Toyota truck that stopped to pick him up. A witness called troopers to report the incident and an officer stopped the red truck at Mile 50 Parks Highway, according to court documents.

Halla told Connors about the incident and said there was another person in the truck at that location, according to court documents. Connors' report said he went back to Parks and Vine and found the green Chevy on a dirt mound 75 feet across the intersection.

Forwood was "very unresponsive and bleeding," Connors said in his report. A Meadow Lakes ambulance arrived, Forwood was extricated from the truck and taken to Valley Hospital.

Connors' affidavit said he saw "an empty cardboard container which would have held 24 cans of beer. I saw an empty 1.75 liter bottle which appeared to have contained alcohol. I observed a nitrous oxide kit with full and empty cylinders on the floor of the vehicle. I also saw a marijuana pipe on the floor by the door."

Connors said Halla told troopers he had gotten drunk, and admitted to drinking and driving.

"Halla admitted that he had a passenger in the vehicle and that he left the passenger in the vehicle because he wanted to go home," Connors' affidavit said.

Halla was taken to Valley Hospital, where his blood alcohol level was .226 percent. His injuries were not disclosed. Forwood suffered a closed head injury, facial lacerations and a fracture, court documents said.

In addition to prison time, Judge Cutler sentenced Halla to three years' probation and a 90-day driver's license revocation on the assault charge. She imposed a $1,000 fine, concurrent 90-day license revocation, and required Halla to pay the $270 cost of his incarceration.