Taxidermist will receive API evaluation

Palmer police officer shot defendant during a confrontation in September

January 8, 2006

MARY AMES\Frontiersman reporter

PALMER - A jury trial has been postponed until next month for a Palmer taxidermist whose defense attorney raised questions about the man's competence.

Shawn McCrary, 43, appeared Tuesday before Palmer Superior Court Judge Eric Smith with his appointed public defender, Bruce Brown, who had filed a motion requesting McCrary get a psychological evaluation at Alaska Psychiatric Institute.

McCrary faces five counts of third-degree assault, one count of felony coercion and one count each of violating a protective order, reckless endangerment and second-degree criminal trespass stemming from a Sept. 20 standoff at his estranged wife's home, which ended when Palmer police Sgt. Lance Ketterling shot him in the abdomen. McCrary filed his own motion, requesting another attorney.

&#8220I advised him the defense theory he wants wouldn't be effective,” Brown said. &#8220I had many long discussions with him and most of them end with him talking over me to some unseen judge, or slamming down the phone.

&#8220He said some upper-level FBI agents came to visit him at Palmer Correctional Center,” Brown said. &#8220He's not functioning in the real world. He has only a very large conspiracy theory, but no specific evidence.

&#8220His ability to focus on his case is hampered by his belief in a conspiracy theory that could be helped with treatment or drugs at API,” he said. &#8220I'm standing a bit away from him in court today because of the things he said to me, things he said he might do in open court that would worsen his case.”

The prosecuting attorney, James Fayette, an assistant attorney general at the Office of Special Prosecutions in Anchorage, didn't oppose Brown's motion. Fayette, who appeared telephonically, had filed another motion to have McCrary evaluated for culpability.

&#8220As far as Bruce and Fayette being in agreement, it's almost a ploy to break down my credibility,” McCrary told Judge Smith. &#8220There have been constitutional violations against my rights. At the hospital, for seven days, Alaska State Troopers locked me up and kept me out of touch with anybody. Brown refused to file a motion on that.”

McCrary requested new counsel appointed from the Office of Public Advocacy.

McCrary's credibility got a boost when the judge contacted Sgt. Martin Steinriede III at Palmer Correctional Center. Steinriede checked visitor records and told the court that on Dec. 22, two FBI agents, Brent Collins, badge number 18935, and John Holland, badge number 10996, visited McCrary.

Brown told Judge Smith that when he tried to get that information, he was told no one visited McCrary that day, and withdrew his motion for a competency hearing, saying that in the last week, McCrary had been very lucid with him.

&#8220Brown said someone said I was delusional,” McCrary said. &#8220And he wouldn't say who, and I need 100-percent trust in my attorney.

&#8220When I was in the hospital, the troopers said it was a bad shooting,” he continued. &#8220Someone's lying, either Palmer police or Alaska State Troopers. There's no way this police officer, Sgt. Ketterling, could see through solid rock to see what I did.”

Ketterling has said McCrary was armed and made a movement with his handgun that appeared to threaten Ketterling and the officers with him.

Palmer Police Chief George Boatright has said that if Ketterling hadn't fire, McCrary could easily have fired a shot.

Investigation of the shooting was turned over to the Anchorage Police Department because Trooper Sgt. Bob Cox was there, along with four Palmer police officers: James Gipson, Philip Krauss, Palmer Police Chief George Boatright and Ketterling.

More than a month after the shooting, no one would say who pulled the trigger until McCrary spoke to the Frontiersman from Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility, fingering Ketterling.

A few days after McCrary described the situation before, during and after the shooting, Boatright confirmed Ketterling shot McCrary and said the shooting was necessary to defend another officer.

The investigative report from APD has not been released.

Judge Smith determined Brown to be an effective counsel for McCrary, accepted the withdrawal of the competency hearing and ordered a culpability hearing.

McCrary also requested a bail reduction hearing.

&#8220I have to have major surgery where I got shot and it blew out my stomach wall,” McCrary said.

&#8220I would like to be able to have surgery on my own insurance and on my own recognizance, with bail as low as it can be,” he continued. &#8220I don't want a third party to have to be in the hospital with me.”

Smith asked Brown to file an expedited motion for bail review and ordered Fayette to give his response to McCrary by Monday.

Contact Mary Ames at 352-2284 or mary.ames@

frontiersman.com.