Man sentenced for shooting

PALMER -- A Montana Creek man convicted of shooting his then-pregnant girlfriend in the buttocks two winters ago was sentenced last week to 18 years in prison.

Palmer Superior Court Judge Beverly Cutler gave Mark D. Nason, 33, 15 years for his first-degree assault conviction in the Dec. 12, 1999 incident.

He received an additional three years for another charge, felon in possession of a firearm, in connection with the same case. The sentences will run consecutively.

Nason shot Heather Gillespie, who was 19 years old at the time of the alleged shooting and 4 1-2 months pregnant. The alleged assault occurred at a cabin on Montana Creek Road where the couple was staying, according to court documents.

Charging documents said Nason shot Gillespie after an argument, as she turned to leave.

After hearing conflicting testimony in his trial earlier this year, a Palmer jury found Nason guilty as charged.

Gillespie, who testified as a witness for both the defense and prosecution, told the jury in April that she was to blame for the shooting that landed her in the hospital for several days.

Gillespie testified she became enraged and "threw a fit" when she found her dog had eaten 10 pounds of hamburger. She testified that she began to throw items around the cabin in anger. One item she grabbed, she said, was a 9mm Ruger handgun.

When she tossed the handgun, Gillespie testified it hit a nearby coffee table and discharged. A bullet hit Gillespie in the buttocks and exited through her hip, she said. The gun's safety mechanism was disengaged when the gun fired, she said.

Nason, who was reportedly building a bed for Gillespie when the gun discharged, ran to a neighbor's house for help. The neighbor and Nason brought Gillespie to the Sunshine Medical Clinic on the Talkeetna Spur Road, where she was stabilized and then transported to Valley Hospital in Palmer.

When Alaska State Troopers arrived at the clinic, Gillespie told them she accidentally shot herself.

Nason left the clinic after he delivered Gillespie there. Troopers later arrested him at the Montana Creek cabin. According to troopers, Nason had to be doused with pepper spray in order to get him down from the cabin's loft. The 9mm handgun was found in his right front pocket, according to court records.

Palmer District Attorney Roman Kalytiak questioned the version of the shooting incident to which Gillespie testified at trial, citing conflicting statements she made in two other interviews with troopers and her testimony at a grand jury hearing just five days after she was shot.

Kalytiak presented as evidence a tape recording of an interview between Gillespie and Trooper Sgt. Dallas Massie, conducted at Valley Hospital a day after the shooting. He also entered as evidence Gillespie's testimony against Nason at the grand jury hearing.

On both recordings, Gillespie said Nason accidentally shot her through the cabin door when he fired the gun inside the cabin.

But Gillespie, who testified she was bipolar and sedated on pain killers, said she didn't remember either the interview in her hospital room with Massie or the grand jury testimony. She did, however, say the statements she made in both instances were lies.

Kalytiak suggested Gillespie was lying to cover for Nason, the father of her baby daughter.

Gillespie testified the Division of Family and Youth Services took the baby out of her custody after allegations she was living in her car with the child. She denied the state agency's allegation.

The Montana Creek incident was not the first time Nason brushed against the law.

Cutler refused to admit into the trial testimony from Anchorage police who had knowledge of a prior shooting in which Nason was involved, but considered his prior arrests in sentencing him.

In 1994, Nason was charged with attempted murder when he fired two rounds from a .38-caliber handgun at an Alaska Regional Hospital security guard. According to records, Nason had told the guard he needed to use a restroom, and asked the guard to let him in through a locked door.

The guard refused, telling Nason he could get in the hospital through the emergency entrance. Nason then walked to his car, started "driving doughnuts" in the parking lot and fired at the guard.

The jury convicted him of a lesser charge -- misdemeanor reckless endangerment. In addition, Nason was convicted of third-degree assault, driving while intoxicated and third- and fourth-degree misconduct involving a weapon.

According to court records, he received a year in jail for the reckless endangerment.

Nason's record of offenses in Anchorage began in 1989, when Nason -- also known as Mark Reabo Meyers -- was convicted of second-degree burglary and theft. He received 30 months in prison with 15 months suspended, and five years' probation upon release.

The following year, Nason pleaded no contest to second-degree theft and was found guilty of reckless endangerment. He received a suspended imposition of sentence for 18 months, and five years' probation.

Court records also indicated Nason was convicted of reckless endangerment in 1990, but those records did not give details of the offense.

"Offering probation didn't make sense in light of his history of rehabilitative failures," Kalytiak said at Nason's sentencing.