Murder trial of man who shot his daughter goes to jury

PALMER — Attorneys delivered closing arguments Tuesday morning in the murder trial of a man who shot and killed his daughter more than a year ago.

Michael Wolverton, 70, has admitted to shooting and killing his daughter, Shannan Wolverton, in the house they shared together on Mariah Drive in the Fishhook community in October 2014. Mr. Wolverton called police shortly after the shooting to report it, claiming it was done in self-defense.

Details of that night have been shared over the course of a trial that began May 3, as well as in court documents. Many of the facts of the case have not been in dispute, rather, lawyers have argued whether or not Michael Wolverton was justified in using a handgun to shoot and kill his 47-year-old daughter.

According to those accounts, Shannan Wolverton had invited a man over to change a light bulb at the house about 10:30 p.m. The man changed the light bulb, and the two were inside having a drink, when Michael Wolverton reportedly asked Shannan Wolverton to tell the man to leave. Michael Wolverton claims his daughter entered his bedroom and began yelling at him. Michael Wolverton then pulled a handgun — a single-action .44-caliber Ruger Super Blackhawk revolver — and showed it to her, telling her “We’ll talk about this tomorrow.”

Michael Wolverton told investigators Shannan then charged around the bed to get at him. Crime scene photos displayed Tuesday show Shannan Wolverton laying on her back between a bed and a wall with a gunshot wound near her left eye.

Office of Public Advocacy attorney Lyle Stohler argued Shannan Wolverton violently approached her father, with whom she had a history of verbal and physical altercations. Michael Wolverton had every reason to suspect he would be seriously hurt, Stohler said during closing arguments.

“He knows at that point he’s going to be assaulted, he knows that he — given his physical conditions — is going to get hurt real bad,” he said. “That’s a real simple way of saying ‘serious physical injury.’ And I believe, is reasonable.”

Stohler said Michael Wolverton was in no condition to defend himself physically.

“You heard the tape of him walking from one police vehicle to the other, and when he does that, he gets out of breath and has to use his inhaler,” he said. “It’s on the transcript: ‘Puff from inhaler.’”

Stohler said prosecutors had variously argued Michael Wolverton instigated the fight, that Shannan Wolverton hadn’t actually intended to harm her father, that Michael Wolverton wasn’t entitled to self defense, and shouldn’t have used deadly force in defending himself.

“The state’s offering all of these theories because they’re hoping one of them will stick,” he said.

In their arguments, prosecutors pointed out that had Shannan Wolverton been trying to kill or seriously injure Michael Wolverton, another handgun was available in the living room. Instead, Shannan Wolverton worried her father was going to kick her out of the house, and confronted him about it while upset, said Palmer assistant district attorney John Cagle.

“This is a 47-year-old having a temper tantrum,” Cagle said. “This is not a 47-year-old coming in to attack her father physically.”

Shannan Wolverton’s history of physical assaults didn’t mean she necessarily intended to assault her father that night, Cagle argued.

“One of the key things in his mind is a 20-year-old assault where she was throwing things around the house,” he said.

At different points during interviews with Alaska State Trooper investigators, the elder Wolverton gave statements indicating something other than self-defense may have been at play, Cagle said.

On Tuesday, prosecutors replayed sections of Mr. Wolverton speaking to investigators:

“She says ‘Well then shoot me. Shoot me.’” Michael Wolverton is heard saying on one recording.

He then describes the moment he took his daughter’s life:

“The third time she said ‘shoot me,’ I did,” he says during the interview. “I don’t know why, but I did.”

On another recording, an investigator asks Wolverton what went through his mind when he pulled the trigger.

“Nothing,” Wolverton says. “It’s like, it was time to take her out. Over the years I’ve seen her cause so much pain to everybody in the family.”

Palmer prosecutor Raymond Beard argued that no one could explain Shannan Wolverton’s final actions apart from the man who killed her.

“We do not get to hear from Shannan Wolverton,” Beard said. “She will never be able to tell anybody what happened that night. She cannot tell us her story. She cannot refute anything that has been said by Michael Wolverton.”

Mr. Wolverton was the aggressor because he introduced the prospect of fatal violence into a shouting match by showing his daughter the gun, Beard said. He then killed his daughter because she had challenged him and taunted him after he showed the gun, Beard said.

“This is the first time that deadly force has come into play,” he said. “There’s a yelling match going on, and out comes a gun.”

The jury continued deliberations Wednesday.

Contact reporter Brian O’Connor at 352-2270, brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com, or on Twitter @reporterbriano.