Teen found guilty of manslaughter

PALMER — Tuesday afternoon, following more than three days of deliberations, a jury found 18-year-old Shane Harapat guilty of manslaughter for fatally shooting his friend Kenny Alcantra in February 2003.

The jury of nine women and three men found Harapat not guilty on a more serious charge of second-degree murder.

Harapat’s parents, Roger and Judy, were tried before the same jury on charges of reckless endangerment for providing the gun to Shane and allowing him unsupervised access. Harapat and Alcantra were both 16 at the time of the shooting.

Judy Harapat, who testified she didn’t know her son kept a revolver in his room, was found not guilty of the charge.

But the jury failed to reach a verdict on Roger Harapat, who had given the gun to Shane for his 16th birthday. Superior Court Judge Eric Smith declared a mistrial in Roger Harapat’s case.

The Palmer district attorney’s office said there is no decision on whether to retry Roger Harapat’s case.

More than 10 months have passed since Harapat shot Alcantra in the chest with a .44-caliber Ruger Super Red Hawk revolver. Kenny Alcantra came over to Harapat’s house the night of Feb. 5, 2003, and while the two sat on the bed talking, Harapat took out the revolver and it went off, killing Alcantra.

Emotions ran high on both sides of the packed courtroom Tuesday afternoon. After Judge Smith delivered the jury’s verdict, bailiffs handcuffed Harapat and led him to Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility across the street. His sentencing is set for Jan. 14.

In the hallway outside the courtroom, the Harapats immediately went to confer with their attorneys. Judy Harapat made only one statement about the verdict as she hurried out of the courtroom with her husband and daughter.

“This was never about justice,” she said, her voice shaking. “This has been about revenge.”

Kenny Alcantra’s parents, Joseph and Miranda Alcantra, were present almost every day throughout the three-week trial. Although they were silent during the trial, they were vocal about their anger and disappointment at the verdict on Tuesday.

“I don’t understand the jury’s verdict,” said Joseph Alcantra, Kenny’s father. “We felt all along that the parents should have some consequences for what happened that night.”

“The facts were all there,” Miranda Alcantra said through tears. “Kenny went over there, Shane whipped a gun out and shot my son. This was preventable.”

Assistant District Attorney Suzanne Powell said the state is satisfied the jury recognized the elements of manslaughter, that it was more than a case of criminal negligence. Powell, who helped try the case, said there was some evidence presented that could have established second-degree murder.

As for the parents, Powell said she felt there was sufficient evidence to convict one or both of them.

“Our position was that both parents were responsible for the reckless condition that was created,” Powell said. “It depends on what your expectation of a parent is.”

During the trial, Harapat’s attorney Jim Gilmore argued that Harapat’s thumb slipped off the hammer when he went to uncock the pistol and hand it to Alcantra.

District Attorney Roman Kalytiak argued that Harapat was trying to scare Alcantra by pointing the gun at him and pulling the trigger, thinking the chamber was empty. Some witnesses testified during the trial that Harapat had pointed the loaded revolver at friends in the past.

Jury deliberations went on for days, beginning Thursday afternoon, Oct. 7. The jury considered each indictment separately, said jury foreman Jimmy McDowell.

McDowell, a 30-year-old teacher from Palmer, said the first vote the jury took on Harapat was 9-3, with the minority arguing for second-degree murder. But the other jury members were able to convince them Harapat’s actions amounted to manslaughter, not murder. The deciding factors were Alcantra and Harapat’s close friendship and the state’s failure to show Harapat’s indifference to human life, especially Kenny Alcantra’s life, McDowell said.

In the case of Judy Harapat, McDowell said jurors found her not guilty for different reasons. Some said she didn’t know about the gun in Shane’s room, others said she knew, but didn’t see it as a serious or dangerous threat.

Roger Harapat was a more difficult case for jurors.

“For jurors that thought he was guilty, it rested on Judy’s testimony,” McDowell said. “For those that found him not guilty, it was because he trusted his son and didn’t feel there was a risk.”

Contact John Davidson at john.davidson@frontiersman.com.