Trooper describes scene during 2006 standoff

PALMER — Sgt. Walter Blajeski said he beat a quick retreat two years ago when, while on an assignment to arrest Donald Voorhis, he found himself with a rifle barrel 18 inches from his chest.

Blajeski testified that as he retreated, “I started to yell, ‘I’m a state trooper, don’t shoot me.’”

Voorhis, 51, on Thursday completed the fourth day of what is expected to be a two- to three-week trial before Superior Court Judge Eric Smith. The incident Blajeski described, which happened on Sept. 8, 2006, precipitated a three-day standoff with authorities that ended with Voorhis in jail, charged with three misdemeanors and 10 felonies, including three counts of attempted murder.

By the end of the standoff, troopers had thrown or fired numerous canisters of tear gas into Voorhis’ Talkeetna mobile home, had blasted the structure with a water cannon and, eventually, torn two wal ls from the trailer with a bulldozer.

Blajeski was manning a video camera later in the standoff when troopers tried to enter Voorhis’ mobile home. He was there when the shooting started, although at first he didn’t quite realize the sounds he was hearing were gunshots.

“I started feeling gravel hit my leg and I realized I was being shot at,” Blajeski testified Thursday. The rest of the tape, which hasn’t yet been played for jurors, was taken from a safe location as the sergeant crouched behind a truck on Voorhis’ property, Blajeski said.

Palmer District Attorney Roman Kalytiak said evidence will show Voorhis fired first and troopers returned fire.

Herman Walker, one of two attorneys representing Voorhis, asked Blajeski about statements Voorhis’ neighbor John Yow made to troopers. Baljeski recorded or testified to those statements three times prior to trial and in each instance he recalled Yow said that two days prior to the standoff Voorhis pointed a gun at him, turned it away, cranked off a round, then pointed it at him again.

In his opening statements Walker said that, unlike Blajeski, Yow did not remain consistent on this point, changing his story later to say that the round was fired at him but missed. That change of aim might seem insignificant, but it means a lot to Voorhis as, in legal terms, it’s the difference between attempted murder and assault.

That issue will also be raised later when it comes time to dissect exactly how and where Voorhis fired when troopers entered his home. Speaking in the voice of Voorhis, Walker, during his opening statements, said Voorhis was mostly confused.

“Everything just happens and I don’t know what happened,” Walker said, speaking as Voorhis.

Walker’s opening statements painted a picture of Voorhis as a person who, mentally, wasn’t all there, who may have been delusional and was certainly talking to himself.

Kalytiak said that, in essence, the three-day standoff could have ended much sooner had Voorhis simply stepped out of his trailer and allowed troopers to arrest him. Troopers, after all, were just trying to arrest someone they knew to have warrants for his arrest — for failure to appear in a pair of open court cases and for the Yow incident — and who they’d been told had threatened people with guns and may actually have taken shots at people.

Walker, for his part, said troopers were over eager and didn’t need to employ the tactics they did.

“Donald wasn’t going anywhere,” he said.

The trial will resume on Monday.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiers-man.com or 352-2270.